Tennessee 10, Vandy 1: Maybe Next Time
Vanderbilt took another "L" at the hands of the Tennessee Volunteers on Thursday night.
Welcome to the “Tennessee Thomas” newsletter written by “The Sports Renaissance Man” Chase Thomas. This is a section of the newsletter where I write about the Tennessee Volunteers. Who would have guessed? In my game recaps I follow a “cut to the chase” style with those words highlighted in bold throughout the piece. I do hope that you enjoy it and add your email below so you never miss an issue. This newsletter is delivered to your inbox, not your doorstep, daily. Happy reading.
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It finally happened. The Tennessee Volunteers baseball team finally took the field in Hoover to begin their quest of winning the SEC Tournament. It may have taken a bit to get here, but there is no doubt about it – the Vols are here. The Vols were supposed to face off with the Vanderbilt Commodores long before the game actually took place around 7:00 PM EST on Thursday evening. Because of that, fans and analysts alike had time to think about things, and, potentially, overthink things. With the delay in play, it was fair to wonder what the Vols would like when they finally found their way onto the baseball diamond and played ball. If you talk to a lot of folks in the game, one of the first things you’ll learn is how routine-oriented so many guys are. They’re not all superstitious, but they are a little stitious, you know?
Well, if you were wondering if we would see the Tennessee baseball team that we have come to expect all season long on Thursday night, the Vols cleared that up real quick. Not even a rogue whistler could have prevented the Commodores from taking another loss at the hands of the BaseVols. For those keeping score at home, last year’s College World Series finalists are 0-4 against Tennessee in 2022.
It was not like Mississippi State, another 2021 juggernaut in college baseball, where the game ended in the top of the first inning. However, Tennessee made sure folks who needed to get up for work early on Friday ahead of the holiday weekend were able to get to bed maybe a bit earlier than they had anticipated.
It’ll be Chase Dollander, the ace of the staff this season, on the mound against LSU on Friday night. However, on Thursday night it was Blade Tidwell. He is still not quite back to who he was in 2021. Still, he only gave up one run over 4 and a third innings. The highlight was the top of third for Blade. With one out in the inning, the home plate umpire missed an obvious strike-three call. Then missed another. This led to a walk for Vandy and Vandy posing a serious threat with runners on first and third with one out. However, Blade got out of the inning with a strikeout and the Vols kept their one-run lead. (Note: Frank Anderson also had some thoughts on the home-plate umpire losing track of what is and what is not a strike. The umpire preferred that he cut it out.)
Speaking of the third inning, the North never forgets and the Tennessee Volunteers never forgets. That’s right, as the bottom of the third is when things got ugly in a hurry. The Vols added five runs in the bottom of the third inning to blow the game open at 6-0. To begin this inning, Trey Lipsomb took a questionable HBP, Jorel Ortega smashed an RBI double, and Christian Moore yielded a double and an RBI off a crazy error. And just like that the Vols buried the Commodores.
How do we feel about Mad Drew Gilbert? When you’re dealing with a cleanup hitter batting close to .400 you usually want to tread lightly. Instead, in the bottom of the sixth inning Gilbert, after already knocking in two runs on the evening, was rung up by the homeplate umpire on a ball that was so low and away folks in in Hoover waiting in line at the concessions were stunned. Gilbert was heated, and remained heated in the dugout. It should be noted this team was up 8-1 at this point, but this team’s intensity remains the same throughout. It’s not the biggest reason the team is No. 1 in the country, but it is one of them.
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