Griffin Merritt hits another walk-off homer as Tennessee baseball tops Mississippi State
Griffin Merritt had one walk-off homer in his baseball career a week ago.
The Tennessee baseball outfielder has two in six days. He smashed a ninth-inning breaking ball off the batter's eye in center field to lift Tennessee to a win against Mississippi State on Thursday after hitting a walk-off in the 12th against Vanderbilt last Friday.
"I don’t want things to be tight in the ninth, but if they are, I’m going to try and get these numbers," Merritt said.
Merritt lifted the No. 16 Vols (28-14, 9-10 SEC) to another series-opening win with a walk-off shot in an 8-7 win against Mississippi State (24-18, 6-13) 8-7 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
“Griffin Merritt is the goat," third baseman Zane Denton said. "I was on-deck and I shouldn’t have even gone up there. I pretty much knew what he was going to do. He has done it many times here already. We had a lot of faith in him.”
UT and MSU play again Friday (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+).
PITCHER: Tennessee baseball delivered a reminder against Vanderbilt: This Vols team is dangerous
Griffin Merritt is a clutch machine lately
Merritt hadn't hit a walk-off homer since high school. He got it done against Vanderbilt, then fittingly came back to deliver the decisive hit in another series opener.
Merritt sat on the breaking ball from MSU reliever KC Hunt after seeing him throw the same pitch repeatedly to Christian Moore in the eighth. He watched the first one for a ball, then clobbered the second one.
"If you take care of your stuff in these cages and watch your film and you run through your approach on the bench and whether you’re in the game or not in the game, if you’re paying attention, you start to understand what you’re trying to do and you feel prepared and you’re not nervous or too amped up," Merritt said.
Chase Burns is electric despite a blown save
Tennessee pitch Chase Burns entered in the seventh Thursday after MSU scored three runs to make it a 7-6 game. He struck out Amani Larry on an 87 mph slider to end the threat with Luke Hancock on second base. He allowed a game-tying homer in the ninth to Amani Larry, blowing a save opportunity.
Burns entered in the 10th against Vanderbilt in the series opener and struck out three straight. He struck out seven in three innings to set up UT's 4-3 walk-off win. He worked a scoreless inning in the Sunday finale to complete UT's sweep.
He has made four appearances this season as a reliever, including a 5⅓-inning stint at Arkansas.
"He can be trusted in a lot of situations and it was pretty evident (Thursday) — we had a big situation unraveling, a good offense and we were starting to lose our composure a little bit and he came in and calmed the seas," Vols coach Tony Vitello said.
Tennessee stayed hot with two-out scoring
Zane Denton lined a single to right field with two outs in the first inning to put Tennessee ahead 4-1. Tennessee kept its recent two-out hitting alive with more success.
The Vols tallied three two-out runs in the fifth on a Christian Scott two-run single and a Maui Ahuna run-scoring double.
UT scored nine two-out runs in the first inning against Vanderbilt on Saturday, then scored three more with two down in the second. UT scored five two-out runs in the second inning Sunday against the Commodores.
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.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Griffin Merritt hits walk-off homer, Tennessee baseball tops Mississippi State
