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Tennessee baseball hammers Florida with 11-run inning to win series

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Tennessee baseball hammers Florida with 11-run inning to win 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.

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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.

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The inning started with a Kavares Tears walk and a Dylan Dreiling double. Dean Curley single 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 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 setting down 11 straight. He allowed four hits and walked none before departing in the ninth.

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

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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.

CHASE: Inside Blake Burke and Christian Moore’s homer-bashing, record-trading chase for Tennessee baseball

The players in those spots went 3-for-32 with 20 strikeouts in the doubleheader. They had five walks and three hit 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 michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.





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South Florida officers sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, claiming details in ‘The Rip’ are too real

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South Florida officers sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, claiming details in ‘The Rip’ are too real


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“The Rip” features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case.

FILE – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck attend the world premiere of “The Rip” at Alice Tully Hall, on Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. Photo by CJ Rivera/Invision/AP, File

MIAMI (AP) — Two South Florida police officers claim Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s recent action thriller “The Rip” used too many real-life details in its fictionalized narrative, causing harm to the officers’ personal and professional reputations, according to a defamation lawsuit.

Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, sergeants in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, filed the lawsuit in Miami federal court earlier this month against Artists Equity, a film production company owned by Affleck and Damon. Court filings don’t say how much the officers are suing for, but the civil complaint says they’re seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees, as well as a public retraction and correction.

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“The Rip” features Affleck and Damon as South Florida police officers who find millions of dollars inside a house. Parts of the movie were inspired by a real 2016 case, where police found over $21 million linked to a suspected marijuana trafficker in a Miami Lakes home.

An attorney for Artists Equity declined to comment when reached Monday by The Associated Press. But in a March 19 response to the plaintiffs’ demand letter, Leita Walker, an attorney for Artists Equity, wrote that the film does not purport to tell the true story of that incident or portray real people, which had been stated by a disclaimer in the film’s credits.

Although Smith and Santana aren’t named in the film, the lawsuit claims that Santana was serving as the lead detective assigned to the real case, and Smith was the sergeant who supervised the investigative team. The film’s inclusion of real details about the case gives the impression that the characters are based on the plaintiffs, the suit said.

And this, the lawsuit claims, has given friends, family members and colleagues the impression that the plaintiffs committed the criminal acts that appear in the film, which include (SPOILER ALERT) conspiring to steal seized drug money, murdering a supervising officer, communicating with cartel members, committing arson in a residential neighborhood, endangering the lives of civilians, repeatedly violating core law-enforcement protocols and executing a federal agent rather than making an arrest.

Walker wrote in March that the plaintiffs haven’t even identified which particular character is supposed to be based on Smith or Santana, so even if “The Rip” was actually about a real-life narcotics team, there’s no way to connect any of the characters to the plaintiffs.

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“The Rip,” directed by Joe Carnahan, debuted in January on Netflix. It’s currently rated 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

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South Florida and Miami news today

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South Florida and Miami news today


You’re watching the NBC6 South Florida News streaming channel, which plays local South Florida news 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can find the “NBC6 South Florida News” streaming channel on your phone or computer, and on Peacock, Samsung, Roku, Xumo or on our app, so you can watch our local news on your schedule.



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Palm Bay, Florida parents of premature twins held NICU wedding

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Palm Bay, Florida parents of premature twins held NICU wedding


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  • A Florida couple, both with prior health issues, welcomed miracle twin boys nine weeks prematurely.
  • The couple’s planned wedding was interrupted by the early birth of their sons, Joshua and Rhett.

Ben and Danielle Cassidy were told they likely wouldn’t be able to have children.

But this year they will celebrate Mother’s Day just months after having an impromptu wedding in the AdventHealth for Children hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit shortly after Danielle gave birth to twins prematurely — a week before the Palm Bay couple was scheduled to get married.

Both babies, Joshua and Rhett, are doing well despite arriving nine weeks ahead of schedule on Jan. 19, 2026, just one day after their scheduled baby shower. With a proper wedding out of the question with two premature babies in the NICU, a nurse took action.

Issabel Kenkel, the nurse behind the ceremony, said she was already in wedding planning mode for her own upcoming nuptials when she found out the Cassidy family’s ceremony would be interrupted.

“I couldn’t just let them do something small. They needed decorations and something fun, so I spoke to the music therapist and the chaplain,” Kenkel said. In short order, a wedding was being planned for their hospital room and the couple was saying their vows in the company of their safely delivered newborns.

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“When we found out we could request staff members to be on our team, that’s when we requested Issabel and having that kind of consistency from someone who has such a big heart and is so kind,” Danielle said.

The hospital ceremony was all the more special because of the Cassidy family’s own health struggles.

“I have five autoimmune diseases and didn’t really think I would have kids. It’s been a rough journey. When Ben and I met, we were floored at how much a miracle it was to have kids,” Danielle said.

Ben, who battled and beat cancer, said he was worried that his prior treatment would result in negative health outcomes for his future children. Having twins for him was an unexpected blessing.

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“When we found out we were pregnant, we found it so shocking. We said, wouldn’t it be great if it was twins? It filled out our hopes and dreams list,” Ben said. “They’ve been miracles for sure.”

The Cassidy couple said there was so much fear and uncertainty when their twins were born nine weeks early. Being able to get married right away just made them feel all the better about the future.

“It was nice getting married because we didn’t have to wait any longer to make it official. It made it that much harder for her to get rid of me,” Ben said.

“The unknown made it scary,” Danielle added. “We had no idea how long we would be in the hospital. Our wedding was going to be at the beach with immediate family and parents. Having NICU babies, we realized we’d never be able to get to the beach. It was really special having the people who care for our babies be part of the ceremony.”

The couple hadn’t even planned to have a band at their wedding ceremony and now the hospital’s music therapist was performing live for them and the chaplain was conducting the ceremony, something nurse Kenkel said was just part of her job.

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“The babies are going to have the best outcomes if the families are taken care of and going home happy,” she said. “Being in the NICU is already so stressful. This is just one more thing I could do to take care of my patients.”

Tyler Vazquez is the Growth and Development Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. X: @tyler_vazquez.



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