Things could not have gone much worse for the Tennessee Vols baseball team on Saturday against in-state rival Vanderbilt. With a trip to the SEC Tournament title game on the line, the hope was that the Vols and Tony Vitello would get the job done.
Instead, Vanderbilt completely dominated things from start to finish, posting a 10-0 win over Tennessee. A run-rule loss for UT? That's exactly what happened and fans could not have been more disappointed in the performance.
Leave it to Vandy first baseman Riley Nelson to make things worse. Shortly after things wrapped up in Hoover, Nelson delivered quite the message for everyone to hear/see. Nelson made it clear he and his teammates don't like Tennessee and they surely enjoyed sticking it to them in the way they did:
Vanderbilt first baseman Riley Nelson: "We don't like those guys, they don't like us. I think it's the best rivalry in college baseball right now. If you're a young kid getting recruited by both of these schools, I think you know which school you should choose."
— Ben McKee (@benmckee14) May 24, 2025
Vanderbilt 1B Riley Nelson didn't hold back going after the Tennessee baseball team
Did Nelson forget that Tennessee won the College World Series last season? That'll surely be on the minds of future recruits. With that said, Nelson has every right to chirp right now, as Vanderbilt followed its series win over Tennessee earlier this month with the unreal SEC tourney victory.
Nothing went right for Tennessee in the loss, which was such a shame. In the quarterfinals, the Vols posted an unreal come-from-behind win over Texas, which a lot of people thought would give the clubhouse a ton of confidence and momentum to take down the Commodores.
Instead, the Vols started things off flat and they were never able to match Vanderbilt's intensity. It's back to the drawing board for the Vols, as this team is now going to shift its focus to the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Tennessee is the reigning champ, but this club is going to need to wake up and fast if it wants to go on another deep run over the next few weeks. If changes don't arrive, the postseason will end much sooner than anyone wants to see.