STARKVILLE, Miss. - Soon after Tennessee lost Friday night, drawing coach Todd Raleigh's ire, the Vols met and came up with a simple, but oh-so-meaningful maxim by which to live.

"We knew that today was a big game," UT shortstop Cody Grisham said. "We knew the season was coming to an end and every game's important now."

Against Mississippi State Saturday, that's just how Tennessee played.

The Vols scored two runs on back-to-back solo home runs in the first inning, then broke the game open with a seven-run seventh to take a 12-9 win over the Bulldogs in front of an announced crowd of 2,042 at Dudy Noble Field.

Tennessee (25-18, 11-9 SEC) evened the three-game series against the Bulldogs (17-26, 5-15) at a game apiece. Today's final game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EDT, but rain is in the forecast. According to SEC rules, if today's game is delayed, it can't start any later than 5.

Raleigh wanted to play two games Saturday to avoid the rain, but MSU coach Ron Polk wouldn't agree to it, citing a thin bullpen.

Weather-plagued series are nothing new to these two clubs, who haven't played a full three-game set since 2004.

UT jumped on starter Ricky Bowen (2-5) from the get-go Saturday with first inning solo shots from Josh Liles and Kentrail Davis. The Vols added three more runs in the second to take a 5-0 lead, but State rallied for a pair on a fielding error in the second to close to 5-2.

Tennessee starter Bryan Morgado (5-2) settled in, allowing just a solo home run to Tyler Moore in the fourth. He earned the win after allowing three runs, two of them earned, and four hits over six innings.

A combination of MSU pitching miscues and UT hitting broke the game open in the seventh. The Vols batted around and scored seven runs on five hits, the most damaging being a three-run double from Cody Brown.

The first run came when Bowen walked in Grisham - a fourth ball call so grievous to Polk that he sprinted from the home dugout to argue and was quickly ejected.

State rallied to score five in the seventh and one in the eighth, but Tennessee's big seventh inning was too much to overcome. MSU's 26th loss set the record for most losses in school history.

Polk, who is retiring at the end of the season, was apparently still so steamed at the umpiring that he sent assistant Tommy Raffo to meet with reporters after the game.

Raleigh, meanwhile, was in a much better mood than after Friday's 4-3 loss in 12 innings.

"We were ready to play early here," Raleigh said.

In front of his parents in the stands, Grisham, from nearby Booneville, Miss., had a career high three hits.

UT got at least one hit from every spot in the lineup but one after Raleigh tweaked Tennessee's lineup from the one that lost a night earlier.

Shawn Griffin, who has a team-best 11 home runs, wasn't in the lineup after throwing a bat after an at-bat in extra innings Friday.

"We're not going to do that here," Raleigh said. "The wheels aren't going to come off if we're frustrated. We're trying to represent Tennessee and that's not what we're going to do."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.