Tennessee baseball humiliated Ole Miss by sweeping Rebels amidst their antics

This was once a huge rivalry in football. It exploded again with the way last fall’s matchup ended. As Tennessee baseball visited Ole Miss this past weekend, the Rebels tried to cash in on that by trolling them. They also did a lot of talking and guaranteeing.

None of it worked out. Rocky Top walked away with a sweep on the road against a team ranked No. 1 in multiple services last week. In fact, the Vols blew them out, winning 12-1 on Friday and 10-3 on Saturday. Ole Miss only made it interesting Sunday with a near comeback in a 4-3 loss.

That didn’t stop Ole Miss from being the team that ran its mouth, though. Everything began on Friday. The Rebels brought out Lane Kiffin to throw the first pitch with a golf ball in a blatant attempt to troll Tennessee baseball over what happened with the football program last year.

As mentioned, UT responded by dominating that night. However, Ole Miss wasn’t done talking. After that game, junior pitcher Dylan DeLucia tried to excuse it by saying the Rebels took them lightly, according to Nick Suss of The Clarion Ledger. He then guaranteed a win on Saturday. Here’s his full statement.

"“We took them lightly. It won’t happen again. We will win tomorrow. I’ll tell you that. It’s one of those things where they play in a small field. We have a bigger field, so we thought we could throw it in to them. It didn’t work out. We missed some spots and that’s why they ended up hitting the homers. Tomorrow will be a lot better.”"

Of course, a win didn’t come Saturday either. Nor did it come Sunday. That was a lot of talking for a pitcher in his first year with Ole Miss. It was also a lot of talking for a pitcher who gave up five runs to Tennessee baseball in less than seven innings Friday.

Don’t worry. DeLucia never got a chance to redeem himself. He didn’t pitch the rest of the weekend and just had to watch as his team got swept in a series that all started with his horrendous play Friday night.

Even more impressive, the homers excuse for DeLucia went out the window as well. UT didn’t hit a home run in either game Saturday or Sunday, but they still won on Saturday with an offensive onslaught, and they never allowed more than three runs in a game.

Fortunately for the Vols, there was no way Ole Miss could fake any injuries to stop the clock in baseball, and it was in Oxford, Miss., so there was no way Kiffin could fake being injured by something a UT fan threw at him. All they had was talking.

Well, Rocky Top went out and did the winning. Tony Vitello’s team managed to embarrass Ole Miss to the most extreme degree with the way everything played out this weekend. That even carried over to how the final game ended.

The Vols had a 4-0 lead and allowed three runs in the eighth. They then put two runners on base before Redmond Walsh ended the inning in two strikeouts. Then in the ninth, they put the winning run on base again thanks to an error. Walsh struck out the final batter, though.

It was as if Tennessee baseball was toying with the Rebels, making them believe they had a chance to win. Instead, the Vols established themselves as the superior team and have now moved to 23-1 and 6-0 in SEC play. Maybe think twice before you test these guys mentally.