Tennessee baseball vs. Florida takeaways: Vols win Gators series

Hunter Ensley’s best at-bat Saturday might have been lost to memory by the time Tennessee baseball’s onslaught ended at Florida.

The Vols outfielder battled through a nine pitch at-bat in the fourth inning, crushing the ninth offering off the wall for a two-run double. It was the first of three monumental swings for the redshirt junior, who came back with another two-run double and three-run homer in the sixth inning to swing the Vols to a series win at Florida’s Condron Ballpark.

No. 3 Tennessee (39-9, 17-7 SEC) demolished Florida (24-23, 10-14) 16-3, scoring the final 16 runs to win the finale.

“I think it’s a stronger group − a tougher group is the right word − than we originally thought,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said. “They keep kind of pushing that line, which has been fun to watch.”

Ensley was 3-for-4 with seven RBIs Saturday as Tennessee kept pace with Kentucky in the SEC East standings. UT won the opener 6-2 before falling 4-3 in the second game of Friday’s doubleheader.

Hunter Ensley leads Tennessee’s 11-run sixth inning to win series at Florida

Tennessee trailed by one entering the sixth Saturday. It led by 10 when the top half of the inning ended.

UT’s sixth-inning assault spanned 14 hitters and 73 pitches from three Florida pitchers. Ensley had the two largest swings with a two-run double and the three-run homer for a five RBI inning.

“If you look at what we’ve done the last couple weeks, it hasn’t been spread as evenly as we want but it’s kind of been explosive and a few games of frustration,” Vitello said. “Maybe it all kind of boiled over a little bit and I think some guys were able to relax and just play.”

The inning started with a Kavares Tears walk and a Dylan Dreiling double. Dean Curley singled in Tears to tie the game 3-3 before Ensley put Tennessee ahead 5-3. The Vols scored three more on a Blake Burke walk, a Billy Amick sacrifice fly, and a dropped third strike with a throwing error that allowed Tears to reach. Curley singled in another run before Ensley slugged his homer.

AJ Causey continues to be a star long reliever for the Vols

AJ Causey worked three innings of great relief before a rocky start to the eighth. He hit a batter then gave up a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. The Vols reliever got a strikeout and a double play to get out of the threat.

Causey was on for the third time in four relief appearances. He had seven strikeouts in four scoreless innings, including striking out 11 straight. He allowed four hits and walked none before leaving in the ninth.

It marked the third time in the past four weekends that Causey allowed one run or less while throwing four or more innings with at least six strikeouts.

Tennessee’s bottom of the order had a terrible Friday doubleheader

Curley singled to right in the second inning of the series opener Friday to score a run. That was the biggest contribution from the hitters in the bottom five spots of UT’s lineup in the first two games.

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The players in those spots went 3-for-32 with 20 strikeouts in the doubleheader. They had five walks and three hits by pitches. Reece Chapman’s sacrifice fly in the opener was the only RBI beyond Curley’s RBI single. Chapman struck out five times in six at-bats. Ensley had four strikeouts.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @By MikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.