Tennessee takes game two of the series in come from behind fashion with a three-run walk off home run from Max Ferguson.
Arkansas 7 10 1
Tennessee 8 12 2
W — Redmond Walsh, L — Jaxon Wiggins
Notes
Whew. Let’s start at the end. This team’s fight is truly incredible. You can just never say never with this team, no matter the odds. Arkansas squeaking out an insurance run in the ninth felt like it would be enough for the Hogs to clinch the series but a Connor Pavolony bloop single and Liam Spence walk made things interesting and Max Ferguson was ready to hit, taking the first pitch he saw over the right field wall for the three-run walk off homer. After Christian Franklin pimped a home run earlier, Ferguson had some choice words with the Razorbacks’ dugout rounding third.
It wasn’t Ferguson’s first home run of the game either. The junior hit a long solo home run in the seventh inning as well. The solo homers Ferguson hit in the seventh and Jordan Beck hit in the eighth were absolutely crucial to keep Tennessee in striking distance. Vols bats really struggled after pushing starter Peyton Pallette from the game but the two, two-out long balls kept Tennessee in it.
Credit to Will Heflin, he was fantastic through five innings having a perfect game through four innings and a no hitter through five innings. He ran into trouble in the sixth inning going through the Arkansas’ lineup for the third time. Homers from Brandon Webb and Christian Franklin would tie the game and end Heflin’s elite outing on a sour note. The redshirt-senior ended the game with six innings pitched, allowing three hits, three earned runs and one walk while striking out six.
We’ll finish at the start where Tennessee came out strong again, scoring two runs in the first inning and jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The Vols have come out ready in each of the last two games as Arkansas’ starters have thrown just a combined five innings. Arkansas’ bullpen has been really strong to alleviate some of that effectiveness, but the Vols should see some weaker Razorback arms tomorrow.
Blade Tidwell will take the mound for Tennessee at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow as the Vols go for the series win over top-ranked Arkansas.
Quotes
Tony Vitello on what he told Max before the at-bat and if bunting was on the table
“I think the conversation that was had was more ‘do what you need to do.’ The guy is a winner and as of about five weeks ago is back to being himself if we want to beat up that topic that’s been discussed a lot. It was about him just doing whatever he thought he needed to do to win the game and then Frank (Anderson) I think— as he does so bluntly— spoke forward and I think used some curse words and said ‘you might as well hit it over the bleeping fence.’ I think that’s how it went down and the bottom line is we left it in the hands of our athlete and he’s an athlete but also a superb kid and that’s why he’s a winner.”
On Will Heflin and his ability to be his best against good teams
“I also think there’s a deal where he’s progressing as a starting pitcher. We’ve asked him to do so many dang things since we’ve been on campus. A lot of different roles and I think now— most these kids want to show up to the park and know exactly what is expected of them. Unfortunately this isn’t the big leagues. Each game is enormous if you want to state it as is, but now that he’s kind of slotted into that spot, he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to be out there with the game on the line, later in the game, to work his way to 100 pitches— I think there’s that progress too. But when the moment is big or the opponent is great I think what he does is he doesn’t go the other way. He maintains composure and stays true to who he is where a lot of kids at a young age— and it’s hard to fault them— will try and do too much or will get too amped up or something like that. A lot of that comes with his maturity and his consistency that we are always preaching to you guys.”
Vitello on the importance of the two solo homers to stay in the game
“Just to give the guys something, Max hit that first one and came in the dugout and said ‘this things not over yet’ and those emotions were coming out of him and part of me wanted to say ‘well yeah it’s only the seventh inning of course it’s not over yet.’ What he meant was we kind of needed to get back in the fight and if our guys are guilty of anything this series maybe when we get a punch in the gut there’s a little bit too much deflation going on in the dugout and amongst our guys. I think that was a rally cry to our guys to get back to playing.”
Will Heflin on his outing
“It was pretty sharp early on and even late I felt like it was coming out of the hand pretty well. When you face a lineup like that you have to mix and match and you almost go reversal like you want them to hit it early in the count. You have to go right at them and put a stamp on it and say here you go and see what they can do with it.”
Heflin on his reaction to the walk off
“I’m standing on the bench in the back behind V(itello) and across from Anderson. They called time to talk to Ferg and I think everyone in the stadium thinks we’re going to sac him over to get the tying run on second and I think Frank put a little magic dust or something on Ferg told him ‘you know what, hit a three run jack.’ First pitch, I mean you can’t really draw it up any better. I acted like a kid. I think I gave Anderson a right hook and a left hook in the kidney and he gave me one back and I sprinted— I don’t really know what happened but it was insane.”
Ferguson on whether to bunt or swing away
“I was bunting the whole way. That was the only thing I was really thinking about and then coach A trots out there and says ‘what are we doing’ and I told him it was up to me, what did he think and that’s just when he says ‘I want a three run jimmy’ so coach A saying that I was like here we go and coach E(hlander) just said to do it slow and less is more here. That was really the only thing going through my head.”
Ferguson on if he knew it was out off the bat
“That was pretty crazy. It’s probably up there for one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. When I turned to the dugout the first person I saw when I hit it was coach V and he was going bananas. It’s always cool to do stuff like that and see the reaction and it just shows you how close this team is and kind of what we’ve brought to Knoxville this year with how electric the environment was today and yesterday.”
Arkansas 7 10 1
Tennessee 8 12 2
W — Redmond Walsh, L — Jaxon Wiggins
Notes
Whew. Let’s start at the end. This team’s fight is truly incredible. You can just never say never with this team, no matter the odds. Arkansas squeaking out an insurance run in the ninth felt like it would be enough for the Hogs to clinch the series but a Connor Pavolony bloop single and Liam Spence walk made things interesting and Max Ferguson was ready to hit, taking the first pitch he saw over the right field wall for the three-run walk off homer. After Christian Franklin pimped a home run earlier, Ferguson had some choice words with the Razorbacks’ dugout rounding third.
It wasn’t Ferguson’s first home run of the game either. The junior hit a long solo home run in the seventh inning as well. The solo homers Ferguson hit in the seventh and Jordan Beck hit in the eighth were absolutely crucial to keep Tennessee in striking distance. Vols bats really struggled after pushing starter Peyton Pallette from the game but the two, two-out long balls kept Tennessee in it.
Credit to Will Heflin, he was fantastic through five innings having a perfect game through four innings and a no hitter through five innings. He ran into trouble in the sixth inning going through the Arkansas’ lineup for the third time. Homers from Brandon Webb and Christian Franklin would tie the game and end Heflin’s elite outing on a sour note. The redshirt-senior ended the game with six innings pitched, allowing three hits, three earned runs and one walk while striking out six.
We’ll finish at the start where Tennessee came out strong again, scoring two runs in the first inning and jumping out to a 3-0 lead. The Vols have come out ready in each of the last two games as Arkansas’ starters have thrown just a combined five innings. Arkansas’ bullpen has been really strong to alleviate some of that effectiveness, but the Vols should see some weaker Razorback arms tomorrow.
Blade Tidwell will take the mound for Tennessee at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow as the Vols go for the series win over top-ranked Arkansas.
Quotes
Tony Vitello on what he told Max before the at-bat and if bunting was on the table
“I think the conversation that was had was more ‘do what you need to do.’ The guy is a winner and as of about five weeks ago is back to being himself if we want to beat up that topic that’s been discussed a lot. It was about him just doing whatever he thought he needed to do to win the game and then Frank (Anderson) I think— as he does so bluntly— spoke forward and I think used some curse words and said ‘you might as well hit it over the bleeping fence.’ I think that’s how it went down and the bottom line is we left it in the hands of our athlete and he’s an athlete but also a superb kid and that’s why he’s a winner.”
On Will Heflin and his ability to be his best against good teams
“I also think there’s a deal where he’s progressing as a starting pitcher. We’ve asked him to do so many dang things since we’ve been on campus. A lot of different roles and I think now— most these kids want to show up to the park and know exactly what is expected of them. Unfortunately this isn’t the big leagues. Each game is enormous if you want to state it as is, but now that he’s kind of slotted into that spot, he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to be out there with the game on the line, later in the game, to work his way to 100 pitches— I think there’s that progress too. But when the moment is big or the opponent is great I think what he does is he doesn’t go the other way. He maintains composure and stays true to who he is where a lot of kids at a young age— and it’s hard to fault them— will try and do too much or will get too amped up or something like that. A lot of that comes with his maturity and his consistency that we are always preaching to you guys.”
Vitello on the importance of the two solo homers to stay in the game
“Just to give the guys something, Max hit that first one and came in the dugout and said ‘this things not over yet’ and those emotions were coming out of him and part of me wanted to say ‘well yeah it’s only the seventh inning of course it’s not over yet.’ What he meant was we kind of needed to get back in the fight and if our guys are guilty of anything this series maybe when we get a punch in the gut there’s a little bit too much deflation going on in the dugout and amongst our guys. I think that was a rally cry to our guys to get back to playing.”
Will Heflin on his outing
“It was pretty sharp early on and even late I felt like it was coming out of the hand pretty well. When you face a lineup like that you have to mix and match and you almost go reversal like you want them to hit it early in the count. You have to go right at them and put a stamp on it and say here you go and see what they can do with it.”
Heflin on his reaction to the walk off
“I’m standing on the bench in the back behind V(itello) and across from Anderson. They called time to talk to Ferg and I think everyone in the stadium thinks we’re going to sac him over to get the tying run on second and I think Frank put a little magic dust or something on Ferg told him ‘you know what, hit a three run jack.’ First pitch, I mean you can’t really draw it up any better. I acted like a kid. I think I gave Anderson a right hook and a left hook in the kidney and he gave me one back and I sprinted— I don’t really know what happened but it was insane.”
Ferguson on whether to bunt or swing away
“I was bunting the whole way. That was the only thing I was really thinking about and then coach A trots out there and says ‘what are we doing’ and I told him it was up to me, what did he think and that’s just when he says ‘I want a three run jimmy’ so coach A saying that I was like here we go and coach E(hlander) just said to do it slow and less is more here. That was really the only thing going through my head.”
Ferguson on if he knew it was out off the bat
“That was pretty crazy. It’s probably up there for one of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of. When I turned to the dugout the first person I saw when I hit it was coach V and he was going bananas. It’s always cool to do stuff like that and see the reaction and it just shows you how close this team is and kind of what we’ve brought to Knoxville this year with how electric the environment was today and yesterday.”
