Despite Tennessee having the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Auburn baseball held onto a 3-2 lead to take game one of this weekend's series in Knoxville.
With the win Friday night, Auburn improves to 16-7 and keeps their hot streak alive with 10 wins in their last 11 games.
Dillon Ortman earned the win for Auburn going to 5-1 on the season. Terrance Dedrick got the call from the bullpen with one runner on and no outs in the bottom of the ninth and got out of the bases-loaded jam to get his second save of the year.
Auburn got on the board early in the top of the first with a two-RBI double by Blake Austin to score Ryan Tella and Damek Tomscha.
Tennessee responded in the bottom of the first with getting three runners on but Ortman worked his way out of it to keep them scoreless.
Both teams did not score a run until the top of the sixth when Keegan Thompson hit a two-out RBI single to bring home Austin to take the 3-0 lead.
Ortman threw his seventh strikeout in his 1-2-3 sixth inning.
Tennessee started the bottom of the eighth with two consecutive singles and that was it for Ortman as Trey Cochran-Gill came on to replace him. Tennessee then hit two RBIs to come within one run going into the ninth.
Despite Auburn getting a runner to third, Tennessee kept the score at 3-2 going into their last at bats.
With a runner already on Dedrick then threw two consecutive walks to load the bases with one out. Then he forced a groundout to Thompson, who threw the force out at home. Dedrick earned the final out with a pop fly to right field.
Game two of the series in Knoxville is tomorrow at 3 p.m. when Thompson looks to go 5-0 on the mound and also win the series.
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