HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Christian Moore went 3 for 5 with two doubles, a home run and two RBIs to help Tennessee beat Vanderbilt 6-4 Saturday night in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
Top-seeded Tennessee (49-11) plays No. 11 seed LSU in the championship game on Sunday. The Tigers are averaging nearly 11 runs in their four tournament games.
Kavares Tears and Cannon Peebles hit back-to-back singles to lead off the sixth and Tears scored on a sacrifice fly by Dalton Bargo. Moore added a two-out two-run home run to give the Volunteers a 5-2 lead. Peebles singled to lead off the eighth and later scored on a wild pitch but Calvin Hewett tripled in the bottom of the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Vastine to cut the deficit to 6-3.
Zander Sechrist (3-1) gave up two runs on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts in six innings for Tennessee. Marcus Phillips allowed two runs, one earned, while giving up four hits and two walks over the final three innings to earn his third save.
Matthew Polk led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and Braden Holcomb hit the next pitch over the wall in left to make it 2-2.
Dylan Dreiling doubled to lead off the fourth inning and then scored when Hunter Ensley reached on a throwing error to give Tennessee a 1-0 lead. Ensley advanced to third on a single by Kavares Tears and Cannon Peebles hit an RBI sac fly to make it 2-0.
Vastine drove in Holcomb with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth that capped the scoring.
Holcomb finished 2 for 4 with a home run a two RBIs and Vastine was 1 for 3 with two RBIs.
Vanderbilt (38-21) beat Tennessee 13-4 in the second round of the tournament, knocking the Volunteers into the loser’s bracket.
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