Mike Strange

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

Walker Williams Bartlett arrived in this world on April 28, an hour after Tennessee lost a baseball game at Vanderbilt 1-0.

In his eight days on earth, the Vols, for whom his father, Max, plays shortstop, have won three of four games.

That includes a double-header split Saturday with No. 14 Arkansas at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tennessee won 5-4 Saturday morning in the completion of a game that was suspended in the second inning Thursday night. Arkansas won a seven-inning game Saturday afternoon, 2-0, behind the one-hit pitching of Trevor Stephan.

All in all, the Vols (24-19, 7-15 SEC) have been on a bit of a roll, winning five of their past seven, their best stretch since SEC play began.

Young Bartlett's entry was an event. Picture a uniformed Tennessee shortstop sprinting across Vanderbilt's campus to find the emergency room on a Friday night.

Max Bartlett's very pregnant hometown girlfriend, Peyton Scrivener, drove up from Starkville, Miss., with her family to watch the UT-Vandy series. Her due date was May 9.

"Peyton texted me the night before and said she wasn’t feeling very well,'' Bartlett said Saturday. "I told her to talk to her doctor. I guess the doctor gave her the OK to come.''

She left the game early, returning to the hotel with her parents, then went to Vanderbilt Medical Center. She watched on TV as Bartlett doubled off the wall.

"Right after that her water broke,'' he said.

Bartlett was in the dumps because of the loss. His mother told him to shake it off. He was about to become a father.

"I ran in the dugout,'' he said, "took off my cleats as fast as I could and just ran out of the stadium, sprinting down the road. I found my mom and my sister. We ran to my sister’s car and she got us to the hospital, which was not far.''

But there were two hospitals in the Vanderbilt complex, with different emergency rooms. Bartlett was at the wrong one.

"I had to run two blocks to get to the other one,'' he said. "I couldn’t talk when I got there. I was out of breath.''

About 45 minutes later, Walker Williams Bartlett arrived. The proud father was still in full uniform.

Bartlett guesses he slept maybe an hour that night. Coach Dave Serrano, sensing as much, didn't start him Saturday. But Bartlett entered the game late and caught the final out of a 9-3 Tennessee win.

"It was the craziest weekend I’ve ever been a part of,'' he said.

This weekend has been off kilter as well, due to the rain that suspended one game and wiped out another. Serrano was disappointed with the Vols' offensive wilt in game two.

"But on the other side," he said, "the team did what we had to do, at least get one of these two games. We would have liked two, obviously.''