Tennessee baseball team opens Clemson Regional at Doug Kingsmore Stadium with 8-1 win over Charlotte

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Tennessee came out swinging to build a big early lead and cruised from there to open its NCAA tournament run with a convincing 8-1 victory over Charlotte on Friday evening at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina.

Previous Coverage: Vols secure win over Charlotte in Clemson Regional opener

The Volunteers scored in each of the first four innings to race out to an 8-0 lead over the 49ers. After Andrew Lindsey stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout to end the top of the first, Christian Moore got the scoring started with a clutch two-run double to the gap in right-center with two outs.

M7 | What a night for Andrew Lindsey! He finishes his seventh inning of work with strikeout No. 10.

Vols 8, Charlotte 1

📺 https://t.co/5IxkIXygwU #GBO // #OTH // #BeatCLT pic.twitter.com/Lb93ldFfdK
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) June 3, 2023

The Brooklyn, New York, native provided a major spark for the Big Orange, reaching base three times and finishing 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs.

Lindsey picked right up where he left off at South Carolina two weekends ago, tossing yet another gem on Friday night. The junior right-hander pitched seven strong innings to earn the win, allowing just one run on five hits while tying a career-high with 10 strikeouts.

The Big Orange added two more runs in the second on a pair of RBI singles from Maui Ahuna and Jared Dickey before Moore led off the third with an opposite-field home run to extend the lead to 5-0.

Tennessee continued to pour it on in the fourth when Griffin Merritt launched his team-leading 18th homer of the year off the roof of the left field grandstands, plating three more runs for the Vols.

⚠️ be on alert in the outfield porches when Griffin Merritt is hitting ⚠️

Griff launches his 18th homer of the year, this one a 3-run shot to make it 8-0 Vols! 🚀🚀

📺 https://t.co/5IxkIXygwU #GBO // #OTH // #BeatCLT pic.twitter.com/HzdhTpQIHr
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) June 2, 2023

The graduate transfer also had an impressive showing, going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs and three RBIs.UT’s 3-4-5 hitters of Dickey, Merritt and Moore all had multi-hit efforts and combined for eight of the team’s 11 knocks while driving in seven runs for the Vols.

Tennessee (39-19) will take on regional host and No. 4 national seed Clemson in the winner’s bracket game on Saturday at 6 p.m. after the Tigers pulled away late in their contest against Lipscomb earlier in the day for a 12-5 victory.

The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to the regional final and be just one win away from moving on to an NCAA Super Regional next weekend.