BATON ROUGE, La. — Jared Jones took his time admiring the ball he sent hurtling beyond the reaches of Alex Box Stadium and toward the distant Tiger Stadium.
The LSU first baseman took little time rounding the bases, rushing to his teammates at home plate in a celebration that spilled toward the Tennessee baseball dugout. As it did, the press box announcer made a barely audible announcement of the ninth-inning statistics.
Six runs. All unearned.
“Free bases in that inning is not a good idea,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said.
Tennessee turned a 3-0 lead and eight innings of pristine baseball into a 6-3 loss with one inning of foibles that opened the way for timely LSU hitting.
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The inning started with LSU’s Ethan Frey hitting a high chopper to Vols third baseman Dean Curley. Curley took a crow hop and rifled a throw to first that made first baseman Andrew Fischer leap to catch it for a throwing error.
“I don’t know that anybody for either team gets the guy on the first play,“ Vitello said.
Vols pitcher Nate Snead struck out Steven Milam on three pitches and got Jake Brown to hit a grounder to Curley, who moved to his left to field it. Curley, who has struggled defensively recently, biffed the ball to put two on with one out with his second error in the inning.
Snead walked Tanner Reaves on five pitches and LSU coach Jay Johnson pinch hit Dalton Beck, a little-used two-way player who had one hit all season. He smoked a 2-1 pitch back at Snead, who tumbled to the ground as it rocketed to center field.
“It was his ballgame,” Vitello said of Snead. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make plays behind him in order for him to get it done. One strike away from still overcoming and getting it done, but you’ve got good hitters you’ve got to get out. It didn’t happen.”
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Two runs scored as LSU finally cracked through against Tennessee, which received a sterling start from Liam Doyle. He allowed one hit in 6.2 innings.
Snead retired Chris Canfield for the second out. He wouldn’t get another but Vitello rode with the junior.
“That is our guy in that situation,” Vitello said.
Snead got LSU leadoff hitter Derek Curiel into an 0-2 count. He threw a ball before Curiel crushed a breaking ball past a diving Fischer into right field for a game-tying single. He threw his elbow guard toward the dugout.
Snead fell behind Jones with a first-pitch ball before getting two strikes. Jones demolished Snead’s 96 mph fastball, sending Hunter Ensley racing back toward the center field fence in pursuit of a ball he had no chance to catch.
“We were one strike away,” Vitello said. “Didn’t get it done.”
The Vols retreated into the dugout then flooded into left field to debrief a jarring loss. All the while, the LSU celebration proceeded with Jones galavanting down the right-field line.
He made the winning play when Tennessee didn’t.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
