Four Quick Takes on a lopsided SEC Tournament loss to Vanderbilt
HOOVER, Ala. — Vanderbilt threw up a five-spot in the top of the third inning and never looked back, defeating Tennessee 13-4 in the second round of Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament action on Wednesday evening.
With the loss, Tennessee now takes on the loser of the Wednesday’s nightcap between 4-seed Texas A&M and 5-seed Mississippi State on Thursday around 1:30 pm eastern time. The contest will serve as the second game of the day and will be an elimination game, as both teams will have one loss.
Here’s Four Quick Takes on a Tennessee loss to Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament.
Guess Who’s Back, Back Again
AJ Russell is back. Tell a friend.
Boy it might not have looked good at first, but what a showing from AJ Russell is his return to the mound. The righty plunked the first batter he faced in the head and then allowed a single behind him to put runners at first and second base with nobody out. Russell steadied and struck out Troy LaNeve for the first out. A fielder’s choice force out at second base was the second out of the inning and then with runners at second and third, the hurler retired leadoff man Jonathan Vastine via the strikeout to escape unscathed after 22 pitches.
It wasn’t a thing of beauty at first, but it ended nicely with no runs. The most important thing was getting him back out there and making sure he feels good tomorrow after tossing the one inning of relief for the Vols on Wednesday.
The sophomore made his return in the top of the sixth inning against Vanderbilt in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament on Wednesday. It was his first action since leaving the top of the ninth inning in a game against Ole Miss on March 23, spanning a total of 60 days. It was the second lengthy absence of the season for the pitcher, as he also missed a total of 30 days earlier in the campaign as well.
Prior to his latest return, Russell had made just four appearances on the injury-plagued season with three starts over a total of 12.1 innings.
Big time stuff from AJ to work his way out of the jam and keep the deficit at three!
https://t.co/Us4NI4Brnb (SECN) #GBO // #OTH // #BeatVandy pic.twitter.com/wL3OxxOnCQ
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) May 22, 2024
Reese Gives Vols some Life
There wasn’t much going on offensively for Tennessee since Hunter Ensley’s RBI double in the second. Tennessee was trailing by five runs at 6-1 midway through the third inning. Things weren’t looking great for the top-seed in the tournament.
Then the Vols sparked a little two-out rally in the home half of the fourth inning to made it a ballgame once again. After a Dylan Dreiling strikeout and Ensley flyout, Kavares Tears singled to right and Dean Curley walked behind him. With two on and two gone, Reese Chapman stepped into the box and sent a 0-1 ball over the right field fence to cut the deficit to two runs at 6-4.
It was the sixth home run of the season for Chapman and his third hit in his past seven at-bats. The drive wasn’t enough to sustain the Vols on a day where the offense was hard to come by, but it was good for Chapman who continues to try and scoop up as many starts in the designated hitter spots as possible heading into postseason play.
A FROM REESE!!!
And just like that, we’re right back in this thing!
https://t.co/Us4NI4Brnb (SECN) #GBO // #OTH // #BeatVandy pic.twitter.com/ZMuqihoUjW
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) May 22, 2024
Vandy Posts 5-Spot in 3rd
Nate Snead was absolutely cruising for Tennessee following a quick two first innings on Wednesday that saw a six-pitch frame and a 4-6-3 double play to get out of another. He even struck out the leadoff man to begin the third inning. Sadly, it didn’t end well for the sophomore flamethrower as four hits producing five runs followed and the Vols quickly found themselves in a 5-1 hole midway through three at The Met.
The eighth hitter in the Commodore order, Troy LaNeve, walked to kickoff the one-out rally. Calvin Hewett, the No. 9 hitter in the order, followed with a double to put runners on the corners. They both moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch and Vanderbilt was on the board. After collecting the second out of the inning on a really good play on a comebacker to the mound, Snead allowed an RBI single that got by Billy Amick at third base and int left field. The Commodores took their first lead of the ballgame at 2-1.
After an infield single to put two runners on from RJ Austin, cleanup hitter Alan Espinal registered the big blow of the inning. It was a three-run home run over the wall in right-center field. Leading by UT by four runs at 5-1, Tennessee turned to Andrew Behnke to collect the final out of the disastrous frame.
Johnny Wholestaff Was Not Good
Tennessee gave the start to right-handed hurler Nate Snead to begin its stint in Hoover at the SEC Tournament on Wednesday and it was a good call early on. The flame-throwing righty retired the Commodore side in order on just six pitches in the first inning. In the second, the sophomore allowed a one out single, but it did no harm as a 4-6-3 double play ball got Snead out of the frame.
Despite striking out the leadoff man to begin the third, the wheels fell off as Vanderbilt torched Snead for five runs of four hits with Alan Espinal’s three-run homer representing the deciding blow. Andrew Behnke was even called on to record the third out as Snead’s day unfortunate day ended early after just 2.2 innings of five-run, five-hit baseball with two strikeouts to one walk on 39 pitches (25 strikes).
Behnke was back out for the fourth inning but was lifted with two outs after giving up an RBI single to center off the bat of Calvin Hewitt – the No. 9 hitter. Dylan Loy was then summoned out of the UT bullpen to collect the third out while stranding a runner on third base. Behnke’s final line read one run off two hits in 1.0 inning of work with a pair of strikeouts.
Loy stayed in to toss the fifth inning and but was removed in favor of Kirby Connell with two runners in scoring position and nobody out to begin the inning. Kirby induced a groundout to third to pick up the first out, but a run did score on a groundout to short that followed. The third out of the frame came when Vanderbilt tried to steal home and the base runner was out by a mile.
AJ Russell made his return to the mound following a 60 days absence to begin the sixth inning. Despite running into trouble by allowing the first two runners to reach, the righty buckled down to strand two in scoring position to toss a clean frame.
Marcus Phillips pitched the seventh and gave up a two-run home run to Alan Espinal. It was the second homer of the day for the Commodore catcher and his fifth run driven in. Mtthew Dallas took over in the eight and allowed a three-run homer to Jonathan Vastine to make the score 12-4 in favor of the eighth-seed. JJ Garcia capped the evening on the mound and he did gave up a long ball in the ninth inning.
All in all, not a great day of work for the Tennessee pitchers in what was treated like a bullpen game. UT pitchers allowed four home runs and 13 earned runs in the contest as Vanderbilt racked up 15 hits. The Vols will likely turn to Chris Stamos for the start on Thursday with elimination on the line.
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