by Tristan Thornhill
No. 15/8 Tennessee (39-13, 15-12) lost a heartbreaker to No. 11/10 Vanderbilt (36-16, 16-11) after another weird rain delay wrapped up the final SEC regular season series from Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols are now just 1-5 in their last 6 series finale games. Tanner Franklin is credited with the loss, while Luke Guth earns his second win of the season. Ethan McElvain also picks up his first save.
Regardless of the loss, Tony Vitello believes his guys will be “anxious to get back out on the field” on Tuesday against Belmont.
Sunday’s game ended up being a battle of the bullpens, and Vitello acknowledged the lack of a Sunday starter, but it’s up to guys to step up and execute.
Hitting wasn’t the issue in today’s finale. The Volunteers tallied 11 hits, two of which were moonshots from Andrew Fischer, bringing his total to 20 on the season.
Ensley capped his marvelous series with a 2-4 effort, and Levi Clark went 1-3 with a double.
However, even with Tennessee improving in the hitting department, they left 12 men on base in the loss.
Game Recap
Tennessee shot themselves in the foot in the first inning. After Kuhns struck out Rustan Rigdon, RJ Austin followed with a single to center. Austin, well known for his speed, got inside the head of Kuhns from first base. After several throws over to first, one gets away from Fischer, and Austin advances to second on a failed pick-off attempt.
Austin put his speed to use again, swiping third and causing the throw from Cannon Peebles to trickle into left field. Austin scores on a headfirst slide, giving Vanderbilt a 1-0 lead in the first.
Tennessee responded quickly in the bottom half of the inning with a Fischer dinger, his 19th of the year. Fischer admired it the entire way out of the park, hyping up the crowd and chirping some Vanderbilt players the entire trip around the pillows.
Fennell, who’s known for his quick pitch delivery, was bested by Fischer, and he wanted to let him know. Vanderbilt catcher Colin Barczi tried to confront him at the plate, but home plate umpire Kevin Sweeney quickly separated the two. Before Fischer’s departure into the dugout, he fired up the crowd, causing Tim Corbin to come out and talk things over with the umpires.
Vitello also came out to discuss with the umpires, but the crowd started to get restless and animated.
For the first time all weekend, it truly felt like a rivalry game.
Vitello described the atmosphere as a “Super regional type game or playoff type atmosphere on the field.”
Vitello commended Fennell on his play and acknowledged his wind-up; “The guy is good. He’s a good athlete. He’s got really good stuff. But part of the deal is off the wind up, doing what he’s doing…It got that far to where both sides were doing all that deal. So, I don’t fault [Fischer] for doing that.”
After the two sides trickled back into their dugouts, the game resumed play.
Barczi got his revenge in the second inning on a bullet homerun off the scoreboard in right field, his 7th of the year.
The Vols quickly answered in the bottom half of the inning. Dean Curley reached on a fielding error by Rigdon and advanced to third on a Levi Clark double. Curley would score on a Peebles sac fly to centerfield, knotting the game up at 2 a piece.
Tennessee stranded four runners in between the third and fourth innings and committed three errors through three innings, most of which came via failed pick-off attempts by Kuhns to Fischer.
“[Kuhns] was really good… Would like to go back and have a couple pick off throws be a little different. That’s usually kind of one of his strengths, how he balances out the run game.” – Tony Vitello on Tegan Kuhns’ outing.
Other than Kuhns’ failed pick off attempts, he pitched well. Only giving up 1 earned run on 3 hits with 5 strikeouts, however, he still got a relatively early hook.
“We were ready for the next time somebody got on base to go to [Brayden] Krenzel. He’s probably one of our best guys handling that stuff. Plus, if there’s a guy on base, he’s a ground ball pitcher, you get a double play.”
While the move worked out for the Vols in the fourth, it would hurt them in the fifth. Rigdon helped Vanderbilt recapture the lead with a single through the left side, scoring Mancini, who walked and stole second.
But anytime Vanderbilt took a lead, Tennessee responded right back. Ensley and Bargo singled to left in the bottom of the fifth, and Curley came through with a single back up the middle, scoring Ensley.
With only one out and runners on the corners, the Vols had a chance to jump out to their first lead of the game, but squandered another opportunity, as Grimmer fouled out to Barczi behind the dish, and Clark grounded out into a fielder’s choice.
As clouds started rolling into the area, it appeared Tennessee finally had the 1-2-3 inning they needed. After Krenzel got Nelson to fly out, Tanner Franklin came in to strike out Johnston. In the next at-bat, Holcomb smashed an 0-2 pitch deep to right, but thanks to a leap from Newstrom, he brought the ball back into the yard, falling for a triple rather than a home run.
Despite the effort, Franklin gave up a homerun to Barczi on another bad 0-2 pitch, his second of the game, giving Vanderbilt a 5-3 lead.
Immediately after this home run, Vitello motioned to his dugout for Dylan Loy, but the grounds crew motioned for the tarp.
Lightning and heavy rain in the area delayed the game for 2 hours at 5-3, and fans, once energized by a rivalry game, started to file out of the stadium.
At 7:13, the game finally resumed play, with an ugly start for Tennessee. On the third pitch from the restart, Vastine crushed a ball into the porches for the second home run of the inning, making it 6-3 Vanderbilt.
After it seemed all the life was sucked out of the building, Fischer responded in a big way in the bottom half. After Kilen was hit by a pitch with two outs, Fischer laced one to right field, his second of the day (20th of the season), to bring the Big Orange within one.
The Volunteers threatened once more in the seventh. Bargo started with a leadoff, infield single and advanced into scoring position on a passed ball. Unfortunately for the Vols, they would waste it, with Curley, Grimmer, and Peebles all hitting into unproductive outs.
In the ninth, Vanderbilt hit what would ultimately be the dagger when Mike Mancini hit a 1-2 pitch to right field for a home run.
Another 2-out, 2-strike pitch that ended up being a hit for Vanderbilt. Simply unacceptable.
In the bottom of the ninth, Tennessee had runners on first and second, and Blake Grimmer squared up a ball that very well could have gone 389 feet to straightaway center field.
After the storm had come and gone, the air was muggy, and the ball simply wasn’t carrying.
Clark would walk to load the bases, but Peebles struck out swinging at all three pitches in his at-bat, concluding this one with a 7-5 final score.
Following the game, Vanderbilt took to the field in celebration, and some players from the Tennessee dugout took exception to it. Hunter Ensley, who will be celebrating senior day on Tuesday, was one of the first out of the dugout to confront the Commodores, and we had a little bit of a shoving match to conclude the game.
Vitello called the kerfuffle “Overrated.”
“Their guys are looking into our dugout as they high-five. But it was a feisty day all day long, so are you going to blame them? You know, that’s Hunter Ensley’s field out there… You know, if you’re on their side, you yell ‘poor loser.’ And if you’re on our side, you yell ‘don’t do that on our field, you’re a poor winner’ … I don’t fault them for celebrating a victory.”
After both teams departed the field, Vanderbilt players began gesturing towards the crowd as it rained down boos. But to them, it didn’t matter, they had come out on top.
Look Ahead
Tennessee’s latest loss slides them in at seventh in the SEC standings, behind Vanderbilt. With only four games left to play, and three of them being against No. 7 Arkansas on the road, one can wonder what the Vols final position will be, with No. 23 Alabama (39-13, 15-12) not too far behind them.
Arkansas is coming off a series loss to No. 3 LSU, also looking to stay ahead of No. 6 Georgia in the SEC standings.
The Vols certainly have their work cut out for them, but in the meantime, their attention turns to Belmont, which comes into town on Tuesday for senior day.
First pitch is at 5 PM EST from Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee.