No. 7/8 Tennessee homered four times and held Bowling Green to just a single hit in its series-opening 11-1 victory on Friday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, extending its winning streak to eight games.
Billy Amick went deep twice and finished with three RBIs while Blake Burke added a home run of his own and also drove in three runs to lead the offensive surge against the Falcons.
Freshman shortstop Dean Curley returned to the lineup and had two RBIs. The California native hit his third homer of the year, a solo shot into the left-field porches to give the Vols a 2-1 lead in the second inning after BGSU briefly tied the game at one in the top of the frame.
Junior pitcher AJ Causey (2-0) made his first start for Tennessee and was dominant from the jump, striking out the side in order to start the game. The junior righthander went seven innings strong, allowing just one run on one hit and one walk while striking out nine batters. Causey faced just one batter over the minimum and retired the last 11 hitters he faced before making way for freshman lefty Dylan Loy, who pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth.
Tyler Ross recorded the only hit of the day for the Falcons (2-5), a solo home run to lead off the second inning that tied the game at one after Amick opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with his first long ball of the game.
Sam Seidel was the only other Bowling Green player to reach base after drawing a walk in the fourth inning but was promptly picked off thanks to a heads up play by catcher Cal Stark.
Christian Moore, Kavares Tears, Dylan Dreiling, Ethan Payne and Colby Backus all had one hit apiece for the Big Orange, who posted their third run-rule win of the season.
UP NEXT: The Vols (9-1) and Falcons will meet for game two of the series on Saturday at 5 p.m. on the SEC Network+ and the ESPN app.
STAT OF THE GAME: Tennessee recorded its third one-hitter already this year in Friday’s victory, marking the first time in the Tony Vitello and Frank Anderson era (2018-pres.) that the Vols have posted three one-hitters in the same season. The Vols have now logged seven one-hitters since 2019.
