Tennessee baseball was five outs from clinching its first back-to-back SEC series wins of the season when rain and lightning stopped everything in Oklahoma City. The Vols were leading Oklahoma 5-3 in the seventh inning of Game 2 on Friday night when the game was officially suspended because of inclement weather and will resume May 16 at 2 p.m. ET.
The third game of the weekend series is scheduled to start about 45 minutes after Game 2 ends at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Tennessee had already taken the opener 9-7 on May 14, and a win in Game 2 would give it a series victory after what had been a stubborn climb from a 3-0 deficit for the second straight night.
The game moved into a lightning delay at 8:48 CT after a strike came within eight miles of the ballpark, freezing a contest that Tennessee had controlled with four straight runs. The Vols rallied from the early hole behind consecutive third-inning swings that changed the tone: Trent Grindlinger lined a two-RBI single to put Tennessee ahead 4-3, Manny Marin followed with an RBI triple, and Jay Abernathy drove him in with an infield single. Henry Ford also reached on an error that let Blake Grimmer score in the fifth.
Oklahoma had opened with force. Camden Johnson blasted a two-run home run in the first inning, one of the two-run homers that put the Sooners ahead before Tennessee settled in. But the Vols kept answering, and Evan Blanco steadied the game by escaping a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth on his 99th pitch of the night.
Josh Elander called the effort gritty and praised the way his team kept competing after being punched in the mouth early. The result, once play resumes, will matter beyond one night in May. Tennessee entered at 36-18 and 14-14 in the SEC, Oklahoma at 31-10 and 13-15, and the delay came with the series still carrying the residue of Tennessee’s last league set, when weather also altered the final two games. If the Vols finish the job, they will leave Oklahoma City with their first consecutive SEC series wins of the year and a chance to turn a stop-start weekend into a real step forward.
