A seven-run 7th inning pushes Tennessee past Illinois, completes series sweep with 8-3 win

Blake Burke hit his sixth home run — tied for second on the team — and was subsequently ejected in the fifth inning

Despite a shaky outing from starter Aaron Combs — his second straight poor performance as a starter — the Vols scored seven runs in the seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie and held on to win the game and lock down another sweep with the 8-3 dub.

Combs surrendered a solo home run in the second after giving up a two-out walk in the first that he worked out of without giving up any damage. In the third, he struck out the first batter but then gave up two consecutive singles that laid the groundwork for a run-scoring sac fly to the next batter followed by a two-out double by Illini five-hole Drake Wescott that plated another run.

Combs got a strikeout to end the inning, but after 2.5 innings, Tennessee found itself down 3-0.

Illinois starter Jake Swartz gave up just one hit in the first — a two-out double to Billy Amick — but popped up Kavares Tears to strand Amick in scoring position. Swartz struck out Dylan Dreiling to start the second, induced a fly-ball out from Robin Villeneuve next before hitting Dean Curley with a pitch to give the Vols another two-out baserunner. Reese Chapman swung at the first pitch he saw and popped out to center that put up another goose egg from the offense.

The offense stranded two runners on base, despite three walks from Swartz, when Cal Stark led off the bottom of the third with a full-count free pass. Christian Moore doused any momentous embers by hitting into a double play, but Swartz issued two-straight freebies to Burke and Amick. Tears grounded out harmlessly to first, stranding Burke in scoring position and Amick at first.

Combs pitched through the third frame, but Vitello brought the heat in with Nate Snead for the fourth. Combs final stats: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 Ks. He faced 15 batters, threw 57 pitches, 39 of which were called strikes.

Snead mowed through the top of the fourth with two ground-ball outs and a strikeout.

The bottom of the fourth was a walk in the park for the Illinois starter, as he got Dreiling, Villeneuve and Curley out with two grounders and a strikeout on 11 pitches.

But in the fifth frame, things got interesting.

Snead surrendered a lead-off single, but struck out the next batter before getting a Curley-to-Moore-to-Burke, inning ending double play.

So far, Curley and Moore have combined for 17 double plays. Curley is second on the team with four errors, but he’s just a freshman. Moore has been charged with one error so far, while he committed eight last year. His fielding percentage was .960 last season, and he’s sitting at .982 this year. It’s a small sample size for 2024, but let’s hope it’s indicative of the rest of the season’s figures.

The offense finally knocked a dent in the Illinois lead when Swartz gave up two solo home runs. The first was to Hunter Ensley — a pinch-hit home run and his first of the year.

Let’s hope this gets the RS JR going, as he’s hit just .244 in 15 appearances and 11 starts. Last year, he hit .280 with seven HRs, 31 RBIs while tied for seventh in hits in 11 fewer starts than the team leader, Jared Dickey.

Chapman started today, but Ensley’s proved to be a valuable asset defensively roaming the wide space in center field. He didn’t make an error in 50 starts in his RS SO year and had made just one this season while continuing to make Web-Gem-like grabs.

Blake Burke took Swartz deep two batters later with a two-out blast to right-center for his sixth home run of the year. Metrics for the dinger: 383 feet, 28 degree launch angle and a 102 exit velo.

You don’t get a great look at anything egregious here — no turning and yapping at the catcher or any kind of over-the-top bat flip, but Burke was ejected sometime between innings. According to Ryan Schumpert of Rocky Top Insider, Burke will serve a one-game suspension as both teams had been warned earlier in the game.

According to Shumpert, the game had gotten a bit “chippy,” in the fourth, and Burke said something to the Illini catcher after touching home plate following the home run. If you watch the whole clip, you can see the home-plate ump go to the catcher and start what looks to be some sort of chat.

Here’s a few excerpts from Ryan’s piece and Vitello’ comments after:

“Burke said something to Illinois catcher Camden Janik after touching home following his fifth inning solo home run,” Schumpert said.”

“Illinois’ dugout quickly exploded with a pair of coaches coming out to talk to the umpire before Tennessee coach Tony Vitello also did the same thing. There was no clear ejection sign from home plate umpire Kevin Sweeney but Dalton Bargo was in at first base when Tennessee’s defensive [sic: defense] took the field in the top of the sixth inning.”

“Sweeney warned both dugouts earlier in the game when Tennessee catcher Cal Stark and an Illinois batter were chirping.”

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“Well there had already been an unsportsmanlike conduct that was issued when both catchers were talking to each other during Janik’s at-bat,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said postgame. “Blake hit the home run and when he crossed home plate, I don’t know what he was saying but he was clearly talking to the catcher about the home run or telling him about it.

“Which he’s a smart enough guy, he could see where the ball landed. There’s no need to do that so I don’t necessarily agree with Blake’s approach or some of our other guys’ approach in certain situations and how they handled it. That was our main point in our conversation out there (in right field after the game) how to handle tension like that.”

“But I also don’t agree with how we got to that whole spot. It was not necessary,” Vitello said. “We’ll come out of today being the bad guys and maybe something gets posted and you see Blake Burke got thrown out and he’s a bad guy. …I don’t think we needed to get to that point which I think is fair to say.”

Regardless, Snead dominated the rest of his outing, while Swartz left the game after 5 IP, and UT plated the tying run in the B6 on a Curley sac fly that scored Tears off a lead-off walk.

The bats popped off in the seventh for five runs — a Kavares Tears run-scoring double to give the Vols the lead, and a Villeneuve grand slam. Tennessee has hit three grand slams in the past week.

Snead slammed the door on the next two innings to finish UT’s 15-straight win, which is tied for the third-longest in program history, according to UTSports.

Nate Snead’s final line in his team-leading fourth win: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks in 89 pitches of which 56 were strikes.

Tennessee plays Eastern Kentucky Tuesday at 6 PM EST before SEC play begins with the Alabama Crimson Tide rolling into town this weekend.