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Todd Raleigh looked up at the scoreboard late Friday night and saw a familiar linescore.

Everything looked fine until his eyes scrolled across to the eighth inning.

That's when Kentucky posted three runs en route to handing Tennessee a 5-3 loss at rain-soaked Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

"It's the same thing," Tennessee's first-year head coach said. "It always seems like it's the eighth or ninth inning."

The Vols (25-25, 11-14 SEC) dropped their seventh consecutive game and more importantly dropped a game behind the Wildcats (36-14, 12-13) in the run for the eighth spot in the field for the SEC Tournament.

"It's big," Kentucky coach John Cohen said. "But I guarantee you every coach in the SEC who won on Friday is saying it's big.

"Tennessee's kind of on a tough run, but Todd has them competing their tails off. Here we are playing a team that had lost six in a row and they looked every bit as good as Georgia or Florida or any other team we play."

Tennessee starting pitcher Nick Hernandez (1-5) was impressive and still had to endure another tough-luck loss.

The sophomore took a 2-1 lead into an hour and 15 minute rain delay, returned to the mound, finished with nine strikeouts and threw 125 pitches,

The trouble came in the eighth. Kentucky's Ryan Wilkes led off with a double, Bryan Rose followed with a bunt hit to third and Hernandez walked his first batter of the night (Sawyer Carroll) to load the bases with no outs.

Hernandez had gone 33 1/3 innings without issuing a walk. Last season, he walked 43 and struck out 44. This season, he has struck out 55 and walked eight.

Raleigh went to the bullpen and brought in Ty'Relle Harris, but Wildcats' All-American candidate Collin Cowgill greeted the junior righthander with a two-run single to left. Carroll then scored on a wild pitch.

"We were definitely fired up and ready to play, but we just didn't get it done offensively," UT junior third baseman Cody Brown said. "Nick gave us everything he had as usual, but you're not going to win many games with five hits."

Carroll got Kentucky going early when he hit a two-out, two-strike solo home run in the first.

UT took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Kentucky starter Chris Rusin (5-2) - who hadn't allowed a hit - hit his own brief rough stretch. He issued a walk to Yan Gomes and Brown reached on an error by Kentucky first baseman Brian Spear to give the Vols life.

Freshman right fielder Josh Liles came through with a one-out double down the left-field line to score Gomes and Brown eventually scored on a sacrifice fly from Jeff Lockwood.

Then the deluge and heavy lightning hit in the top of the fifth.

When play resumed, Cowgill came through again for the Wildcats.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, the Kentucky left fielder crushed a Hernandez pitch over the centerfield wall.

UT managed one more run in the bottom of the eighth after P.J. Polk led off with a double and eventually scored on a Yan Gomes sacrifice fly.

Game two of the series is 1 p.m. today (TV: SportSouth).

Simunic finished: UT senior second baseman Andy Simunic has played his final game as a Vol because of academic issues.

The Chattanooga native wasn't in the lineup against Belmont on Wednesday and was in dress clothes at the Kentucky game.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.