This past weekend's series against Auburn brought some controversy and conversations surrounding Tennessee baseball and college baseball umpiring.
Tennessee's Friday night game started when it never should have, burning the Vols' ace pitcher Liam Doyle and delaying the game after the top of the first inning.
The Vols lost that game, which picked up on Saturday in a disappointing showing, but the complaints from Vol Nation didn't stop there.
Tennessee split games two and three on Sunday, losing another SEC series and falling to 37-11 on the season.
Head coach Tony Vitello and pitcher Doyle weere both ejected on Sunday. The frustration spilling over from Friday night and Saturday boiled over, leading to Vitello's ejection on Sunday.
Vitello mentioned that his ejection was partially because of the check swing hypocrisy from the umpiring crew.
"Probably the comparison of the check swings of Levi (Clark) versus — Levi won’t like hearing it, but I think he went," Vitello said postgame. "I think both guys went. I think that was a spillover, too, from the first guy. Which I pat myself on the back and everybody else for keeping composure because our best player got thrown out of the game in an elimination situation for exchanging words with a guy."
Doyle's ejection could impact Tennessee's series against Vanderbilt next weekend, depending on how the SEC classifies his post-ejection suspension.
He has been Tennessee's ace this year, posting a 7-2 record, 2.47 ERA and 112 strikeouts. If he's suspended for two games, he should miss the Vols' midweek matchup and be back for Friday night's game, but the SEC could decide to suspend him for the midweek game and Friday night's game.
The Vols losing another SEC series could be an unfortunate indication of what Tennessee's future could be as they prepare for the SEC Tournament and college baseball postseason in a few weeks.