University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
Austin Peay
Vols Shut Out Governors, 3-0
March 17, 2015 | Baseball
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Volunteers battled Austin Peay through four scoreless frames to start Tuesday's contest, but the Vols came out on top in a 3-0 decision at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The 3-0 victory marked Tennessee's second shutout win of the season and the first shutout victory over Austin Peay since a 16-0 win on March 16, 1983, in Knoxville. With the win, Tennessee improves to 9-8 on the season and 19-4 in their overall contests against the Governors.
In his second career start on Rocky Top, freshman lefty Zach Warren threw 5.0 scoreless innings and allowed just three hits. He struck out a career-high five batters en route to earning his first career win as a Volunteer.
"First off, it was really good to see him with that outing," Head Coach Dave Serrano said. "We needed that. For being the midweek starter, he needs to go out there and gobble up some innings so we don't need to use as many guys. I was very proud of how he handled himself.
"As with any pitcher, it was about strikes tonight and he's got good stuff. He was able to start mixing in the changeup, which is a really good pitch, and against some of the lefthanders he was able to spin the slider. He just stayed in control of himself and minimized the amount of baserunners. I'm proud of how he went out there and got 5.0 innings of work, and how the guys behind him - Steven Kane, Andy Cox and Andrew Lee - came in to pick up the freshman and lead us to a victory."
"I think tonight really helped with getting started on the right foot," Warren said. "I know now what needs to be done to be successful. I feel like I know my role. I just need to go out there, make pitches and do what's asked of me every day to help the team."
The Vols scattered six hits on the Governors, led by Christin Stewart (2-for-3) and Jeff Moberg (1-for-2, HR, RBI). After a slow start, Tennessee beat Austin Peay onto the boards in the fifth inning as junior third baseman Jeff Moberg recorded his first career home run off of Govs starter Zach Hall. Moberg connected with the first pitch of his at-bat to send one over the left field wall and give UT a 1-0 lead. With the homer, Moberg became the third Vol to hit his first career homer in Tennessee's last four games, as junior shortstop A.J. Simcox and sophomore first baseman Nathaniel Maggio each hit first career homers at Florida on Friday, March 13.
"I was just looking for a ball I could drive and that happened to be it," Moberg said. "It was great, especially being the first one to get on the board."
In the next inning, right fielder Vincent Jackson launched a ball into the right-center field gap for a triple, marking the fifth of his career. Simcox then hit a high fly ball to right field, creating the opportunity for Jackson to tag and score on the sacrifice fly and make it a 2-0 Vols advantage.
Tennessee kept the bats going in the eighth, as freshman center fielder Brodie Leftridge began the inning with a free pass to first. Junior Derek Lance was called upon to pinch-run and immediately stole second base, putting a runner in scoring position for Jackson. Jackson grounded out to second base, moving Lance to third, before Simcox came through again, punching one up the middle for an RBI-single to give the Vols a 3-0 lead.
Righthander Steven Kane tossed 1.2 scoreless innings of relief against Austin Peay, entering the game in the sixth for Warren. Lefty Andy Cox threw 1.1 scoreless frames before righty Andrew Lee came in to record the save, his third of the season.
"We are going to be a good hitting team," Serrano said. "We've got to continue getting through the stubbornness of making change. When we get that, with the pitching and the defense that we will continue to keep getting, it has a chance to end up being a good thing. But we can't wait. We have got to get this thing rolling sooner rather than later. We've got a tough opponent coming in this weekend [with Georgia] and we'll have tough opponents the next nine weekends. We are a good enough team to be able to get through this."
The Tennessee Volunteers prepare to host Georgia for their first home weekend of SEC Baseball this Friday, March 20 - Sunday, March 22 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols look to improve on their fifth-place, 1-2 mark in the SEC, just ahead of Georgia's 0-3 start to SEC play in 2015.
For the most up-to-date information about the Tennessee baseball program, visit UTSports.com/baseball and follow @Vol_Baseball on Twitter. To purchase tickets to future games, visit UTTix.com.
