SCORE: Tennessee 6, Mississippi State 2 | FINAL (Vols clinch series)
***SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE AT-BAT BY AT-BAT FEED***
Tennessee baseball (22-12, 5-8 SEC) is set to battle the ninth-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs (26-8, 7-6 SEC) Saturday in game two of a three-game series in Starkville, Mississippi.
First pitch at Dudy Noble Field is at 7:00 p.m. ET on SEC Network +.
For a full preview of the series, including first pitch times, broadcast details and a prediction, click HERE.
Tennessee enters Saturday looking to clinch the series after achieving a crucial 6-5 series-opening win Friday. The Vols used one of their better offensive performances of the season and yet another elite Cam Appenzeller relief outing to claim the victory.
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Appenzeller was brilliant in 5.0 innings of work, totaling a career-high eight strikeouts on a career-high 78 pitches while allowing two earned runs on three hits and one walk.
Appenzeller has followed Landon Mack in all but one outing this year, last week against LSU. The stack returned, but it was the first time the pair both pitched on Friday as Mack recently moved to the Friday night starting role.
Tennessee opting to use Appenzeller as the first man out of the bullpen to follow Mack made lots of sense given UT’s frequent use of the stack, and Appenzeller has clearly been UT’s best bullpen arm. Going to your best reliever is very common in series openers, and Tennessee did so with the game tied in the fifth inning.
Garrett Wright led the way with three hits, and Henry Ford and Levi Clark homered.
Read the full recap of Tennessee’s series opening win over MSU below.
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GAME ONE RECAP: Tennessee Baseball Takes Crucial Series Opener At Mississippi State
Offense and relief pitching beyond a few arms has led to Tennessee’s struggles in conference play.
Specifically, blowing leads has become a troubling theme as of late. In the Vols’ last three SEC losses before this weekend, they led by five runs entering the bottom of the ninth, three runs entering the eighth and five runs after the first five innings.
Tennessee will aim to pull off an upset this weekend in Starkville as Mississippi State has looked like one of the SEC’s best teams at times this season, specifically before last weekend when it got swept by Georgia.
After winning game one, Tennessee has a great opportunity to claim an upset series win and get its season back on the right track. But Tennessee has only won consecutive SEC games once all season (games two and three vs. Missouri).
Tennessee could NOT get swept this weekend, so taking at least one already is huge.
The Vols CAN win this series. Georgia just swept Mississippi State IN Starkville. But given Tennessee’s lack of consistency offensively, I’m still picking MSU to win the series.
The day Cam Appenzeller pitched was going to be Tennessee’s best chance at a win. This weekend, it was Friday and the Vols took care of business. They will need more offensive performances like Friday and good outings from Bo Rhudy and Brandon Arvidson to claim the series.
Injury/Availability Notes
Stone Lawless won’t be available for the foreseeable future. He took an 89 mph pitch to the face Sunday.
Josh Elander UPDATED Stone’s status Tuesday, giving optimism that he could return this season.
Chris Newstrom did NOT travel with the team to Starkville due to an internal issue. It is not expected to be long term.
Ariel Antigua is managing a banged up shoulder but he hasn’t been unavailable.
VolQuest’s Eric Cain reported freshman INF Evan Hankins is OUT for the season with a knee injury.
TRANSCRIPT: What Josh Elander Said After Tennessee Baseball Took Series Opener At Mississippi State
For all of RTI’s baseball coverage so far this season, click here.
For the latest RTI Diamond Pass podcast discussing the LSU series loss, click HERE.
VIDEO: Josh Elander Discusses Series-Opening Win at Mississippi State
Lineups, pitching matchup and additional pre-game notes are below, followed by the LIVE at-bat by at-bat game thread.
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TENNESSEE STARTING NINE:
C Garrett Wright (R)
RF Reese Chapman (L)
3B Henry Ford (R)
2B Blake Grimmer (L)
DH Trent Grindlinger (R)
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LF Blaine Brown (L)
SS Manny Marin (R)
1B Levi Clark (R)
CF Jay Abernathy (L)
Lineup Notes:
Wright starts at catcher for the second straight Saturday. Clark moves to first after catching Friday. Clark will catch Sunday.
Jay Abernathy remains in the lineup at center with Wright behind the plate.
Grimmer moves to second base with Clark at first.
Order is the exact same as Friday, just different positions.
Kuhns gets the Saturday start for the second straight week. Began the season as the Friday guy before moving out of the rotation for the Vandy series, then back in last weekend. Was great out of the bullpen in game one at Vanderbilt.
Kuhns’ outing was relatively short last week as Tennessee quickly turned to Appenzeller after a leadoff walk in the fifth.
Tennessee needs a longer outing out of Kuhns tonight to put it in good position for Sunday. But expect Brandon Arvidson and/or Bo Rhudy to follow Kuhns.
Stone has been Miss State’s Sunday guy primarily this year, but the Bulldogs have shaken up the order of their rotation a bit recently.
Stone started last Saturday and allowed two runs on five hits in 4.0 IP vs. Georgia. Walked three and struck out 10.
It was overall a nice bounce back from his outing the week prior, when he walked a whopping SEVEN batters in 5.2 IP vs. Ole Miss, but still only allowed one run and four hits.
Stone is yet to reach 100 pitches, and hasn’t pitched into the seventh inning yet this year.
Uniforms
Tennessee: Black tops with grey pants and orange accents
Mississippi State: Maroon and white pinstripes with maroon hats and accents
*NOTES*
Run-rule is MANDATORY in SEC play. If Tennessee or Mississippi State leads by 10 or more runs at the end of the seventh inning or later, the game is over.
1st Inning:
T1
-Garrett Wright flies out to RF.
-Reese Chapman ropes a solo homer to right field.
377 feet.
Chapman’s 4th HR of the season.
-Henry Ford strikes out swinging.
-Blake Grimmer strikes out swinging.
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END OF TOP HALF
B1
-Aidan Teel strikes out swinging.
-Bryce Chance flies out to RF.
-Ace Reese flies out to CF in left-center.
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END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 1, Bulldogs 0
2nd Inning:
T2
-Trent Grindlinger singles to left field.
-Blaine Brown pops up to SS in shallow left field.
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-Manny Marin singles to right field. Grindlinger to second.
-Levi Clark knocks an RBI ground-rule double to left-center. Grindlinger scores. Marin to third.
-Jay Abernathy reaches on am RBI fielder’s choice to 1B, sac bunt. Clark to third. Marin scores.
Great squeeze play.
Awesome job by Marin to get his hand in and touch home plate, too, as the first baseman threw home.
Abernathy steals second.
-Garrett Wright sends a sac fly to RF. Clark scores. Abernathy to third.
-Reese Chapman out at first 1B to P.
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END OF TOP HALF
B2
-Noah Sullivan strikes out swinging.
-Jacob Parker is walked.
-Gehrig Frei strikes out swinging on three pitches.
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-Reed Stallman grounds out to 1B unassisted.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 4, Bulldogs 0
3rd Inning:
T3
-Henry Ford grounds out to 3B.
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-Blake Grimmer strikes out looking.
-Trent Grindlinger slaps a single to right field.
-Blaine Brown lines out to RF in right-center.
Hard-hit ball.
Stone at 43 pitches already
END OF TOP HALF
B3
-Ryder Woodson is strikes out looking.
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-Kevin Milewski strikes out swinging.
-Aidan Teel strikes out swinging.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 4, Bulldogs 0
4th Inning:
T4
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-Manny Marin drops a single into right field.
-Levi Clark flies out to RF.
-Jay Abernathy lines a single to center. Marin to second.
-Garrett Wright singles up the middle. Abernathy to second. Marin to third.
Bases loaded with one out for Reese Chapman.
-Reese Chapman grounds into a 4-6-3 double play.
END OF TOP HALF
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B4
-Bryce Chance grounds out to SS.
-Ace Reese grounds out to 2B.
-Noah Sullivan lines out to CF.
7-pitch inning for Kuhns.
Retired eight straight. Logged three 1-2-3 innings.
Kuhns has only allowed one baserunner.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 4, Bulldogs 0
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5th Inning:
T5
-Henry Ford fouls out to 1B.
-Blake Grimmer grounds out to 1B unassisted.
-Trent Grindlinger singles up the middle.
3 hits for Grindlinger so far tonight. One to left, one to right, one up the middle.
-Blaine Brown flies out to RF in right-center.
END OF TOP HALF
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B5
-Jacob Parker doubles to left-center.
-Gehrig Frei singles through the right side. Parker to third.
-Reed Stallman strikes out swinging.
-Ryder Woodson rips an RBI double down the left-field line. Frei to third. Parker scores.
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-Kevin Milewski pops up to P.
-Aidan Teel flies out to LF.
Tegan works out of the jam only allowing one run. Big moment.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 4, Bulldogs 1
6th Inning:
T6
-Manny Marin flies out to CF in right-center.
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-Levi Clark grounds out to SS.
-Jay Abernathy drives a double into right field.
-Garrett Wright ropes an RBI double down the left-field line.
Beautiful complementary baseball from Abernathy and Wright there to score a run.
Abernathy legs out a double and Wright takes advantage.
*Pitching change: LHP Dane Burns (1-0, 0.00 ERA) in to pitch for Stone*
-Reese Chapman grounds out to 1B unassisted.
END OF TOP HALF
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B6
-Bryce Chance reaches on a fielding error by 2B.
Routine ground ball ate him up. Bad mistake.
-Ace Reese flies out to RF.
-Noah Sullivan flies out to LF.
Looked like Blaine initially may have misjudged it, but ultimately spotted it and made a diving catch.
Nice play.
-Jacob Parker out at first 1B to P.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 5, Bulldogs 1
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7th Inning:
T7
-Henry Ford grounds out to SS.
-Blake Grimmer grounds out to 1B unassisted.
-Trent Grindlinger strikes out swinging.
First time he’s been retired.
END OF TOP HALF
B7
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-Gehrig Frei powers a solo homer to right-center.
First pitch of the at-bat. Kuhns needs to be pulled.
*Pitching change: R-Jr. LHP Brandon Arvidson (1-0, 4.56 ERA) in to pitch for Kuhns*
Thought the sixth should’ve been the end of the line for Kuhns. Works out of a jam in the fifth beautifully then gets through the heart of the order in the sixth. Comes out in the seventh and MSU has the most momentum its had all game.
–Tegan Kuhns FINAL LINE: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, 3 XBH, 58 strikes on 87 pitches–
Season-best outing from Kuhns
-Noah Stallman singles through the left side.
Shift was on like crazy. Hit right through the six-hole.
-Ryder Woodson grounds into a 6-4-3 double play.
*Chone James pinch-hitting for Kevin Milewski*
-James singles up the middle.
-Aidan Teel grounds out to 3B.
Bad throw, but good pick by Levi.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
Score: Vols 5, Bulldogs 2
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8th Inning:
T8
*James to C*
-Blaine Brown pops up to 2B.
-Manny Marin pokes a double down the 1B line.
Three-hit night for Marin. Vols hitting stays consistent, esp at bottom of the order.
-Levi Clark strikes out swinging.
-Jay Abernathy rips an RBI double through the left side.
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What a development. Jay 3-3 with two RBI and two doubles. Also a beautiful bunt on a squeeze play.
*Pitching change: RHP Jack Gleason on to pitch for Burns*
-Garrett Wright flies out to RF.
END OF TOP HALF
B8
*Grimmer to 1B*
*Ariel Antigua to 2B for Levi Clark*
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-Bryce Chance pops up to SS.
-Ace Reese flies out to CF in left-center.
-Noah Sullivan flares a single to right field.
-Jacob Parker strikes out swinging.
END OF BOTTOM HALF
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Score: Vols 6, Bulldogs 2
9th Inning:
T9
-Reese Chapman strikes out swinging.
-Henry Ford strikes out swinging on three pitches.
The fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy by police who were responding to a shoplifting call this week has ignited simmering tensions between police and Black residents in the small town of Senatobia, Mississippi.
The death of Kohen Wiley is the latest in a series of troubling encounters with police that have outraged community members in recent years. It has led to protests and calls for greater police accountability in the town of 8,000, with some civil rights activists pointing to Kohen’s death as another example of a Black life lost over something of nominal value — in this case, allegedly stolen diapers.
“We are treating items on a shelf as more valuable than a child,” Bernice King, the daughter of civil right icon Martin Luther King, Jr., said in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “That is not just bad policing; it is a moral collapse.”
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There are still many unanswered questions about the shooting and what led up to it.
Senatobia police responded to the shoplifting call at a local Walmart on Sunday, where they found two women and a child leaving the store, getting into a car and driving away. According to a statement released by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation: “Officers attempted to stop the vehicle, but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one. An officer then discharged their weapon and the vehicle fled the scene.”
Kohen’s mother, Vellesiya Wiley, said her son and her friend, who was driving, were hit by gunfire. In a video posted on social media Wednesday by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Wiley said her friend was not driving toward the officers because they were “all on the right side and she was driving towards the left.”
She also disputes the shoplifting claim, saying in the video that she believes her friend paid for the diapers she was carrying.
Policing expert Ian Adams, who teaches criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said regardless of the circumstances, the officer should not have fired at the car.
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“Modern policing knows that shooting into a moving vehicle is a very bad idea and one to be avoided at almost all costs,′ Adams said. For one thing, ”vehicles have other occupants, which is obviously a concern here in the current case.”
Kohen was Black, as are his mother and her friend, and the circumstances leading to Kohen’s death quickly drew comparisons to another Black mother shot during a response to a shoplifting accusation.
In 2023, Ta’Kiya Young, who was pregnant, was shot by police in a Columbus, Ohio, suburb, after they attempted to apprehend her. Police said Young, who was also the mother of two young sons, got into her car and accelerated in the direction of the officer who fired at her through the windshield. Both Young and her unborn daughter were killed.
The officer in that case was acquitted of criminal charges and found justified in his use of force by a review board.
The two deaths join a long list of other instances of Black Americans dying in interactions with police after accusations of petty criminal offenses. That list includes the murder of George Floyd in 2020, who was killed after police responded to a call that he used a fake $20 bill at a Minneapolis grocery store.
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For some racial justice advocates, such cases serve as a constant reminder of the consequences of systemic racism in law enforcement.
“In the name of ‘law and order,’ a child was killed and family was shattered over items that could be restocked, written off, and replaced,” King wrote on Instagram. “Our charge is clear: until the sacredness of human life is the starting point of every police encounter, we must demand changes in training and work unrelentingly to reform policies around police accountability.”
Marquell Bridges, the president and founder of an advocacy group called the Building Bridges Coalition and who has been helping the Wiley family, said Kohen’s death was “just the breaking point” after years of problematic interactions between Black residents and police.
Bridges pointed to an encounter last year in which an officer threatened Breshari Faulkner with a Taser, pulled her from her car onto the ground and arrested her during a confrontation over a handicapped parking space in the same Walmart lot where Kohen was shot.
Two years earlier, in 2023, a Senatobia officer was fired for his role in arresting a 10-year-old Black boy who had urinated in a different parking lot. The boy’s family settled a federal lawsuit with the city earlier this year.
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“There is a culture there that they are above the law – just because they wear a uniform,” said civil rights attorney Carlos Moore, who has represented the 10-year-old boy and others accusing the department of misconduct.
Police did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press. The mayor and city aldermen also did not respond to messages.
About 40% of the city’s population of approximately 8,300 is Black, according to 2020 Census data. Police did not respond to questions about the racial makeup of the department, but the mayor and a majority of the Board of Alderman members are white. The city has elected only three Black aldermen since it became a municipality in 1860, according to the Tate Record, a local newspaper.
The officer who shot Kohen and the woman driving the car he was in has been placed on administrative leave, a standard practice, while the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation looks into what happened. They have promised to release video of the shooting once the investigation is complete.
Kohen’s grandmother, Veronica Roberson, was there when Kohen was born and babysat him often. She described him as a happy little baby with “the prettiest smile you could ever imagine.”
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She said he was a sweet child and: “He just loved on me, and I loved on him. We loved each other.”
One of his favorite toys was a little lawnmower that would blow bubbles when pushed. Roberson would sit outside with him while he played with it. “He really thought he was mowing my yard,” she said, laughing a little at the memory. “That baby was my world.”
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Millions of Americans live with post-traumatic stress disorder, and this June, mental health experts at the Jackson VA Hospital are urging Mississippi veterans not to wait to get help.
June is PTSD Awareness Month, a nationwide effort to combat stigma and connect those struggling with trauma to available resources. At the Jackson VA Hospital, counselors say the disorder is far more common than most people realize, and it rarely looks the way Hollywood portrays it.
“What we typically see is individuals who are trying their best to manage with an insurmountable amount of negative emotions, anger, fear, shame, guilt, sadness, regret,” said Alex Rakhshan, manager of the PTSD Residential Program at the Jackson VA Hospital. “And they’ve done their best. They’ve done the best they can to manage through.”
Rakhshan, a licensed psychologist with nearly 10 years of experience, says one of the biggest barriers to treatment is avoidance, and it doesn’t always look the way people expect.
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“Avoidance takes many forms, such as working really hard, doing a lot of work in the community, volunteering, staying really focused on the needs of other people,” Rakhshan said. “And while that is laudable, ultimately it serves as a way to stay away from and push away some of those challenging beliefs.”
Rakhshan says PTSD affects all ages and walks of life, not just combat veterans. Natural disasters, car accidents, childhood abuse and neglect can all be triggers. However, veterans face a higher prevalence of the disorder due to the elevated dangers of military service.
Treatment at the VA has changed dramatically over the last decade. Veterans can now receive therapy from the comfort of their own homes through video health technology. Shorter treatment options, like written exposure therapy, a five-session program, are also now widely available, lowering the barrier for veterans hesitant to commit to a full course of treatment.
Iraq War veteran Mike Watkins knows that barrier well. Watkins served as a medic, deploying to Iraq in October 2003 and returning in November 2004. He was stationed in Balad, Taji, Fallujah, Samarra and Mosul. After coming home, he spent years managing hypervigilance, avoiding crowds and struggling to readjust to civilian life before seeking treatment.
“Whether you got a performance car or you’re just trying to take care of your body or you’re cleaning up your house, maintenance is key,” Watkins said. “The way you create muscles is by ripping and regrowing new ones. That’s a metaphor for what you’re doing emotionally.”
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Rakhshan says the first step doesn’t have to be intimidating. “They can just give us a call. We don’t lock you in. You don’t need a signature on a form guaranteeing you’re going to show up. We’re here to serve,” Rakhshan said.
The Jackson VA Hospital offers a range of PTSD treatment options, from in-person counseling to medication to video therapy from home. Veterans and their caregivers are encouraged to contact the Jackson VA Hospital to learn more. No appointment is needed to make that first call.
PTSD affects an estimated 12 million Americans in any given year, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Post-Tropical Storm Arthur unleashes High Risk Level 4 flood threat to Mississippi
The Mississippi coastline is under a rare Level 4 out of 4 High Risk flood threat as remnants of Post-Tropical Storm Arthur continue fueling hazards through late week. FOX Weather Correspondent Brandy Campbell brings us the latest live from Biloxi, Mississippi, where rain is already falling:
