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 his team sitting in last place in the Southeastern Conference standings.
Harris delivered and sent Tennessee to their 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 in 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 poor play than it is 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.”
 
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