Tennessee Baseball Falls To Vanderbilt

The Tennessee Volunteers fell to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday afternoon.

Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello during a NCAA baseball game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on / Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA

The Tennessee Volunteers fell to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday afternoon.

WRITTEN BY BLAKE SCHOWALTER

No. 1 Tennessee claimed its eighth consecutive conference series win following the Vols' 8-4 victory in game two against Vanderbilt on Saturday. However, the Vols fell short of completing the sweep in Sunday's season finale, losing to Vanderbilt by a score of 3-0.

Vanderbilt broke Tennessee’s nine-game winning streak over the Commodores, shutting the Vols out 3-0. It was a rough day at the plate for the Vols, going 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, making it the first time they have been shut out this season. Despite a lackluster performance on the Volunteer offense, credit must be given to Vanderbilt’s starting pitcher, JD Thompson. Thompson finished the day only allowing a pair of hits while recording nine strikeouts throughout nine innings.

Head coach Tony Vitello spoke with the media on whether it was the Vols offense or Thompson’s
performance on the mound that caused the Vols to struggle offensively. "Takes two to tango. Started with good stuff. I don't know how he threw last week or the week before, better than he had thrown against Florida. Our guys, maybe a little less of this or that today. It's kind of hard to tell. It's not like they didn't show up energized."

"There's no over-celebrating or anything like that. They certainly wanted to win. You could sense that. I think a combination of both is always going to be the case, but it's got to start with a guy that is throwing the ball well."

Despite the loss, Tennessee still came away with the series win, extending their series winning streak to eighth in the conference while improving to 42-10 on the season. The Vols will close out their season this week, going up against Belmont on Tuesday and then facing off against South Carolina in a three-game series beginning Thursday.

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