Tennessee baseball’s Tegan Kuhns strikes out 15 in ‘incredible’ start The crowd was already on its feet to give him a standing ovation, but it wasn’t time yet for Tegan Kuhns’ curtain call. Tennessee baseball coach Josh Elander walked to the mound to talk with his sophomore right-hander, who had already provided a gem of a start. With 109 pitches already thrown, Kuhns figured his outing was over. Elander had different ideas. “They must be cheering for me, because you’re staying in this game,” Elander told Kuhns. A long foul ball provided strike one, and an off-speed pitch on the outside edge gave strike two. The fans rose again, and Kuhns sent them into a frenzy by inducing a swing and miss to end the seventh inning. He pointed to the turf at Lindsey Nelson Stadium and declared: “This is my house!” It was the 113th and final pitch of a masterful performance, putting an exclamation point on the most dominant start of Kuhns’ career as the Vols (33-17, 12-13 SEC) won 5-1 against No. 4 Texas (36-11, 15-9 SEC) on May 8. A career-high 15 strikeouts highlighted seven shutout innings, which included just four hits and one walk. It was only the second time this season an SEC pitcher recorded 15 strikeouts in a game, the other coming on March 19 when LSU’s Casan Evans did it against Oklahoma. “I have (struck out 15 batters) in high school, but it was nothing like I did tonight for sure,” Kuhns said. “Just executing when I needed to and landing that curveball down in the bottom of the zone.” Kuhns set the tone from the start, working around a leadoff walk for a scoreless first inning. His opposite was Texas lefty Dylan Volantis, one of the best pitchers in the SEC, so runs would be at a premium. Once the Vols put a run on the board in the bottom half, Kuhns’ confidence rose.#texas #sec #tegan_kuhns #josh_elanders #lindsey_nelson_stadium
