No. 24 Tennessee dropped the series-opener on the road against Kentucky by a score of 9-2 on Friday evening at Kentucky Proud Park.
A cold night offensively doomed the Vols in game one of the series, only able to manage seven hits against the Wildcats' staff, with its lone runs in the game coming on a late inning home run.
After a quiet top of the first for Tennessee, Tegan Kuhns worked out of early trouble in the first with runners in scoring position and no one out. The sophomore righty struck out consecutive batters and then induced a groundout to keep the Wildcat offense off the board.
Kuhns finished his outing by going six innings and striking out seven, but was unable to limit hard contact as Kentucky tagged him for six runs and 10 hits.
Tennessee would end the shutout in the top of the eighth on a two-run home run from Ford, his 15th of the season. Ford was tied for the team lead with two hits, joined by Levi Clark who had two of his own.