Tennessee senior pitcher Ty’Relle Harris knew he had nothing to lose in Sunday’s rubber game of the Volunteers’ weekend series against No. 1 LSU with Tennessee sitting in last place in the Southeastern Conference standings.Harris delivered and sent Tennessee to its first road SEC series win of the season and pitched 6 2/3 innings in the Volunteers’ 9-4 win.”You’re in last place, so what are you going to do — sink into last place deeper?” Harris said. “We just had to come out here and fight and try to show people that we’re better than our record.”The Volunteers took two of three games on the weekend and snapped LSU’s streak of an SEC-record nine-straight conference series victories.Tennessee has been a nuisance to LSU the last three seasons and has won seven of the past nine games the teams played.”Sometimes, I guess, people just have your number,” said LSU senior pitcher Nolan Cain. “They’ve had ours since I’ve been here.”LSU coach Paul Mainieri said his team’s struggles against the Volunteers is more about LSU’s poor play than  about Tennessee’s recent dominance of the series.”They just outplay us,” Mainieri said. “I don’t know what else to say. I don’t think it’s the color of their uniforms or the name of their school.”The Volunteers jumped out of the gates early and took advantage of one of the worst starts of the season by LSU sophomore starter Austin Ross.Ross pitched just two innings and allowed six runs and six hits.Tennessee scored two runs in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead.Volunteers sophomore center fielder Kentrail Davis started the rally with an RBI double. Davis scored two batters later on a wild pitch by Ross.”Ross’s stuff isn’t overpowering,” Mainieri said. “He doesn’t throw 90-92 miles per hour … So when he’s not perfect with his location, they hit him.”Tennessee second baseman Cody Grisham extended the lead to three runs in the top of the second inning with a sacrifice fly to left field.Ross was run out of the game in the third inning, where the Volunteers plated three more runs.LSU junior reliever Paul Bertuccini inherited runners on second and third base with no one out after a single by Vols first baseman Cody Hawn.Bertuccini allowed both inherited runners to score to give Tennessee a 6-0 lead.Sophomore Daniel Bradshaw cooled the rally and got the Tigers out of the inning without any further harm.But the West Monroe native’s first full inning was not as productive as he gave up home runs to left fielder P.J. Polk and Hawn to give Tennessee a 9-0 lead.The Tigers finally broke through in the fifth inning on an RBI single by freshman third baseman Tyler Hanover off Harris.LSU added home runs in the sixth and seventh innings to push closer to 9-4.Junior designated hitter Blake Dean hit his sixth home run of the season in the sixth inning, and freshman right fielder Mikie Mahtook hit a two-run shot to right-center field in the seventh inning.Cain had his best performance of the season and kept the Volunteers off the scoreboard in his 4 2/3 innings, but LSU was unable to push closer and lost for the third time in its past four games.Mainieri said the Tigers will have a meeting tomorrow to address some issues the team is having and will look to rebound before Tuesday’s game against Southeastern Louisiana.”All of our goals for the season are still in front of us,” Mainieri said. “All is not lost, and we’ll look to regroup.”
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