Tennessee baseball sweeps Vanderbilt: Three takeaways

A week after sweeping the Ole Miss Rebels on the road, who were ranked No. 1 in multiple polls at the time, Tennessee baseball continued its red-hot dominance over the weekend against its in-state rival. The Vols, ranked No. 1 in most polls and No. 1 to No. 4 depending on the service, traveled to Nashville and swept the Vanderbilt Commodores in three games.

UT never trailed in any of the games either, winning 6-2, 5-2 and 5-0. These wins extend their streak on the season to 17 games, and it’s the first time they have swept Vandy, ranked anywhere from No. 3 to 11 depending on the service, since 2009. Tony Vitello’s team made it very clear they should be No. 1.

The Vols improve to 27-1 on the year and 9-0 in the SEC with a midweek matchup against the Lipcsomb Bisons set for Tuesday before hosting the Missouri Tigers next weekend for a three-game series. Vandy falls to 20-7 and 4-5 in the SEC with a visit from the Austin Peay Governors set for Tuesday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee baseball’s sweep.

1. Waving off home runs didn’t stop this offense.

As by far the best home run hitting team in the nation, questions arose about the Vols’ bats. In the first inning Friday, that came to fruition, as Jordan Beck hit a homer that was waved off because the bat didn’t have the proper pregame inspection sticker.  That wasn’t going to stop this team. T

ony Vitello did a hilarious interview trolling the whole idea of a sticker legitimizing the unproven idea that UT may be cheating, and they decided to drive in more runs with base hits this series. It worked just as fine. UT had a homer from Luc Lipcius Friday, Trey Lipscomb Saturday and Drew Gilbert Sunday. They drove in four of the team’s 16 runs.

Beck still drove in three runs total with doubles Friday and Saturday. Lipscomb drove in Beck with a triple Friday and a double Saturday. Lipcius and Gilbert both drove in runs with doubles Sunday, and Jorel Ortega drove in Lipscomb with a single. Simply put, if this team needed to prove they could score other ways, they did it.

2. Pitcher stamina and bullpen were great.

Things started a bit rocky on the pitching front Friday, as Chase Burns allowed two runs through five innings. However, Will Mabrey, Kirby Connell and Camden Sewell finished things up, and none allowed a run. The game was never close after the fifth, so there wasn’t much pressure to be fair. On Saturday, though, the story really showed.

Chase Dollander was able to go eight innings, and while he allowed two runs in the seventh, he was almost perfect outside of that. Redmond Walsh then came in, allowed no runs and got the save. Drew Beam took the mound Sunday and was the star of the weekend, pitching a complete game shutout, allowing two hits and retiring the final 16 hitters.

3. Defense answered when called.

Strikeouts have been a huge part of the Vols’ pitching with the power behind their rotation. However, this weekend, they took a bit of a dip with just 21 total strikeouts. Outside of 11 Friday, they couldn’t avoid putting balls in play. That’s where the defense came in.

Despite struggling at times this year, Tennessee baseball’s defense was dominant, allowing just one error. They finished the weekend with a .990 fielding percentage. Vandy had two errors on Saturday and allowed three unearned runs that day, which turned out to be the difference. As a result, it’s safe to say defense is finally becoming an advantage for UT.