Tennessee 12, Kentucky 2: Well, That Escalated Quickly

If you went to bed after the seventh inning, boy, you missed a lot as the Vols took down the Wildcats late in Hoover.

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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Photo By Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics

Sometimes, you have to see it to believe it. If you didn’t make it to the eighth inning, and who could blame you with these 10:00 PM EST gametimes, you woke up this morning and likely could not believe the final tally between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Kentucky Wildcats in the Seminfinal game in Hoover on Saturday night.

Well, believe it, brother.

The Vols, rocking their smokey grey uniforms, beat the Wildcats by a final tally of 12-2. The Vols scored 10 runs in the final two frames to win a seminfinal game by doubled-digits when the game was tied going into the the top of the eighth inning.

Baseball can be weird, man. And weird it was for all the folks who powered through another late night of Volunteer baseball. Once again, though, their commitment to the team paid off as the Vols piled it on to the underdog No. 12 seed Wildcats late to both knock one of their rivals out of the tournament but potentially out of regionals as well. With how many arms the Wildcats threw out late as we are all ready to finally get some much-needed shut-eye, the Vols hanging a ten-spot on Kentucky over the final two frames was more than fair. You drag the game out, you get a Blake Burke moonshot all the way back to Lexington. Those are the rules.

We’ll remember the offense late, but the decision by manager Tony Vitello to cut to Chase Burnes in relief and not save him for Championship Sunday paid off. As Vitello told the broadcast booth, they still had to beat Kentucky, a team who gave them hell in Lexington a few weeks back, and had they saved Burns only to lose on Saturday night folks might have second-guessed him there, too. So, Vitello gave Chase a lot of relief work. There is something about being a pitcher named Chase for the Vols in Hoover, as the two Chases combined for nearly 20 strikeouts between the two over the last 24 hours of Tennessee baseball action. Isn’t that something? Burnes did not even start and he finished with eight strikeouts to Dollander’s nine. We say it all the time, but we say it all the time because it’s true. The Vols have an embarrassment of riches everywhere. Don’t take it for granted. It is rarely, if ever, this good and this easy.

Jared Dickey made a surprise return as a pinch-hitter late in this one. In the top of the ninth, Tennessee’s forgotten hitting machine returned, albeit briefly, and naturally picked up right where that sucker left off. He smacked a single to left and was immediately pulled for a pinch-runner. Still, to see Dickey back was a sight for sore eyes. Part of that had to do with the night that Seth Stephenson had both out in the field and at the plate. Stephenson mistook a flyball and dove for a ball he should not have that led to some very real Kentucky momentum. At the plate, he went 0-3 with two Ks before eventually getting pulled for Kyle Booker late. Seth has been more than sturdy atop the the Tennessee lineup for the majority of this season, but he’s ice cold at the dish and he had a rough night in the field. If there is one question in this Tennessee lineup it’s at the very top where that man figures to register the most at-bats. Things are serious now, but they’re about to get a whole lot more serious in a couple of days. 

The ten runs in the final two frames had all kinds of moments. Perhaps the most important moment, though, came after a Kentucky infielder and outfielder failed to snag a routine pop fly that resulted in two more Tennessee runners reaching home plate. It should not have happened, but it did. Drew Gilbert was visibly frustrated throughout the evening. He was not himself at the plate. He had a couple of strikeouts where he seemed like he psyched himself out. In the dugout, you saw him wonder aloud what was going with him at the dish. Sometimes hoopers need to see the ball go through the net to get back on track. I’m thinking Gilbert needed to get on-base and knock in a few runs Saturday night to prevent any chance he got in his head too much at the worst possible time for this team as they prepare to be the first No. 1 team in America to win the College World Series in over 20 years. To do that, Gilbert cannot be wondering aloud in the clubhouse who he is at the plate.