<p>HOOVER, Ala. — Jalen Battles and Cullen Smith homered to help regular-season champion Arkansas win its first Southeastern Conference Tournament title with a 7-2 victory over Tennessee on Sunday.</p>
<p>The Razorbacks (46-12) , the likely No. 1 overall national seed, had lost on all four previous trips to the tournament championship game. This time they took over after a slow start against the second-seeded Volunteers (45-16). </p>
<p>Arkansas’s Kevin Kopps, the SEC pitcher of the year, gave up a homer to start his outing but went the final three innings for his second save of the week and 10th of the season.</p>
<p>Arkansas is only the third team since the SEC expanded in 2012 to win both the regular season and tournament championships. The Razorbacks went 4-0 in Hoover. </p>
<p>LSU pulled the title double in 2017 and Vanderbilt in 2019 en route to the College World Series title.</p>
<p>The Razorbacks took over in the middle innings and beyond. Battles had a solo homer in the seventh and Smith added a two-run shot in the eighth.</p>
<p>That was more than enough for Kopps, who struck out three and scattered four hits. Ryan Costeiu (8-2) got the win with 1-1/3 scoreless innings of relief.</p>
<p>Battles went 3 for 4 with two RBIs and scored twice, earning tournament MVP honors.</p>
<p>It was the first time since 1995 Tennessee had played in the championship game. In fact the Volunteers hadn’t won a tournament game since 2007, but bounced back from a loss to Alabama in the opener.</p>
<p>The Vols’ three previous tournament titles had come consecutively from 1993-95 when the East Division and West Division had separate tournaments.</p>
<p>Down 1-0, Arkansas finally got to Tennessee starter Will Heflin (2-3) in the fifth, chasing him with three runs. Battles and Zack Gregory each had RBI singles and Matt Goodheart drove in the third run with a sacrifice fly.</p>
<p>Pete Derkay greeted Kopps with a leadoff homer in the bottom half of the seventh for the Volunteers. They weren’t able to add onto that against Kopps.</p>
<p>The Vols had pitched two straight shutouts heading into Sunday, winning 11-0 over Alabama and 4-0 against Florida. </p>
<p>Jake Rucker and Drew Gilbert each had two hits for Tennessee.</p>
