By Stephen Mason
On a cold Sunday afternoon with the occasional snowflake, the No. 13 Tennessee baseball team received a wakeup call as Kent State defeated the Volunteers 9-5. The victory clinched the series for the Golden Flashes, who won Saturday’s game 2-1. This is the Vols’ first regular-season series loss to a mid-major program since 2020 against Wright State.
“I think the most frustrating thing is losing back-to-back games on our home field. That’s not acceptable, our guys know that, and a lot of the decisions I made were not good … it’s clearly my fault from the jump, but our guys know we have to be better,” Tennessee head coach Josh Elander said.
The Vols came up short in nearly every aspect of the game Sunday. The offense, which had been sluggish all weekend, failed to capitalize on base runners. In the bottom of the second inning, Tennessee had the bases loaded with no outs, but a double play followed by a groundout by Manny Marin brought in only one run.
The only two productive members of the offense for Tennessee were Jay Abernathy, the leadoff man, and Henry Ford, who together accounted for five of the team’s seven hits.
“Honestly, I would say right now we’re just trying to figure out, just tryin’ to get back into it … We’ll figure it out down the road, I trust the guys around me,” Abernathy said.
While the Vols put a weekend-high five runs on the scoreboard, three came off a bases-loaded sac fly by Blaine Brown that was mishandled by Kent State’s center fielder, who overthrew second base to clear the bags.
However, any error made by the Golden Flashes paled in comparison to the mistakes the Vols made on defense. In the third inning, Kent State scored three runs without hitting the ball out of the infield. The only time the ball reached the outfield was when catcher Stone Lawless overthrew second base trying to catch a runner stealing. That, combined with hit batters and walks by relievers Ethan Baiotto and Nic Abraham, led to a productive inning for Kent State.
The issues in the third started when Tennessee starter Evan Blanco was pulled after striking out eight but giving up three runs.
“We pulled him there, and in hindsight, that wasn’t the right decision at the time. The velo was down there a little bit and the command, so when you get that combo of both, we thought it was time to go to the next guy,” Elander said.
After Blanco left, the Vols used five relievers. While they occasionally controlled the strike zone, too many pitches escaped to the backstop, awarding Kent State with free bases.
Tennessee’s pitching staff and in-game management will be worth monitoring. Besides losing head coach Tony Vitello in the offseason, the team also lost veteran pitching coach Frank Anderson, who followed Vitello to San Francisco.
“When you get punched in the mouth, you have to punch back … too many zeros after they scored, that can’t happen, it’s unacceptable,” Ford said.
This could also be an opportunity to learn these lessons early on, something last year’s team learned much later in the season, and Abernathy sees the weekend as an opportunity to get ahead of the curve.
“Last year, we got off to a hot start, and we didn’t know how to bounce back after a loss like that … learning from this will be a positive,” Abernathy said.
However, the Vols will need to implement these lessons fast, before they compete in the Amergy Bank College Baseball Series next weekend, where performances like this will look even uglier.
Up next: Tennessee hosts Bellarmine on Tuesday. Following that, the Vols travel to Arlington, Texas, to face a slate of teams including No. 1 UCLA.