Lucio shines as Golden Eagles down Volunteers in Knoxville
Freshman Seth Lucio struck out 11 Tennessee batters in 8.1 innings and the Golden Eagles backed him on the way to a 5-1 Golden Eagle victory Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Field in Knoxville.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
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0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 1 |
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0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 2 |
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Tech baseball team always has high expectations heading into each season, and to say that freshman Seth Lucio met his team's expectations Tuesday evening would be an understatement as the rookie right-hander pitched the Golden Eagles to a 5-1 win over Tennessee at Lindsey Nelson Field.
The 5-1 win over the Volunteers was Tech's first since the 2008 season when the Golden Eagles handed the Volunteers a 9-7 defeat in Cookeville. It was also TTU's first win in Knoxville since March 20 of the 1990 season.
Lucio earned his first win of the season as he fanned 11 batters in 8.1 innings while giving up just five hits and one run. He faced the minimum of three batters in four of his eight innings of work.
While Lucio dominated on the mound, seven different Golden Eagles recorded at least one hit, including Evan Frazier who posted three hits for his third straight multi-hit game.
Zach Stephens got the scoring going as he led off the second inning with his sixth home run of the season, a solo shot to left field.
Tennessee's pitchers by committee kept pace with Lucio through the middle innings. TJ Thornton and Conner Stevens kept the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard through three innings, but TTU tacked on two more runs in the sixth off RBI singles from Frazier and Michael Morris to give Tech a 3-0 lead.
Tech added an unearned run in the seventh inning and an additional run in the eighth on Dylan Bosheers sacrifice fly.
The Vols tried to put together a rally in the ninth inning, but Ben Burgess came on to get the final two outs as Tech secured the non-conference win.
The Golden Eagles return home for a three-game series this weekend as they host Central Michigan. Game one is set for Friday at 3 p.m., with Saturday's game at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday's at noon.
