Well, Tennessee has the winning on Friday night part down pat, and that continued this weekend against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Led by a masterful performance by ace Liam Doyle, the Vols scrapped their way to a 3-2 series win over their intrastate rival. Doyle held the Commodores off the scoreboard through the first 7 innings, allowing 3 hits and striking out 12 over that span. The Commodores scratched for two runs over the next two innings, but Nate Snead was just able to get the door closed.
That part’s been easy. Then, the rest of the series happens, and it all falls apart. And Saturday and Sunday against Vandy were another example of that.
The Vols fell 10-6 on Saturday, trailing by as much as 10-4 before Tennessee tacked on a couple of late home runs for some window dressing. 8 bases were stolen on the Vols, with a healthy number of them off of Marcus Phillips, who was chased in the fourth with Vandy up 4-2. Tony Vitello said after the game that Phillips is going to have to figure out how to control the running game better if he wants to keep pitching, as it’s been a real problem for the Vols’ hurler (he allowed 8 against Kentucky in 5 innings).
Tennessee matched Vandy run for run early in the rubber match, with each team scoring in the first, second, and fifth. Then, in the top of the sixth with two outs and no one on base, Vandy got two straight two out hits – a triple and a home run for a 5-3 lead. A rain delay followed, and right after, Vandy’s Jonathan Vastine added a solo shot for good measure. Andrew Fischer hit a two-run blast to bring UT back to 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth and two on, Blake Grimmer drove a ball to center field that was caught right in front of the wall, feet from a walk off three-run home run. Instead, after Levi Clark walked to load the bases, Cannon Peebles struck out swinging at three pitches to end the game in sickening fashion for Tennessee fans.
Will get into the ramifications of this tomorrow, but for now, it’s another tough example of what we’ve known about Tennessee for weeks. That this is a team that can’t finish a series to save their lives right now after a great start. Texas A&M, Kentucky, and now Vanderbilt. Tough to watch.