With another sweep, Tennessee keeps hitting Vanderbilt baseball where it hurts | Estes

KNOXVILLE – Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin, as always, told it like it is.

After Sunday’s 10-5 loss to Tennessee at Lindsey Nelson Stadium ended another sweep at the hands of the Commodores’ in-state rival, Corbin summed it up as follows: “The last two days, with the exception of the last part of this game, we weren't a match for them.”

And who’d have seen that coming?

If you’d known going into this series that one side was getting swept, you’d have had to think Vanderbilt (29-11, 13-5 SEC) would be holding the brooms, not Tennessee (26-14, 8-10).

Instead, an unforeseeable weekend veered sharply toward the mean. Both sides were due for it, too. Tennessee (26-14, 8-10) was too talented to continue losing two-thirds of its SEC games, and Vanderbilt wasn’t going to maintain its torrid pace and win 26 (of 30) conference games – a mark Corbin has only reached once at Vanderbilt.

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His national title 2014 Commodores went 17-13 in the SEC. For that matter, last season’s College World Series winners Ole Miss only went 14-16.

So it’s early. Still plenty of baseball out there for our state’s SEC teams.

Having said that, though, this could prove a pivotal weekend for both. The obvious headline: The Vols got the spark they sorely needed before it was too late. Their arrow, suddenly, is pointing up.

“A dangerous group when they are playing their best,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said of his Vols.

Indeed.

As for the Commodores? We’ll see what happens now.

This was a very good, very solid, mentally tough, overachieving Vanderbilt team that crumbled over three days. While you’d otherwise chalk this up as one of those gloomy weekends that can happen in the SEC, it hits harder when it's at Tennessee’s hands.

Even worse when you – a top-five team – weren’t a match for them.

This weekend won’t sting nearly as much in Vanderbilt’s RPI ratings as it did in person or will for its fans at the water cooler. Baseball is Vanderbilt’s pride and joy, and the one rival best positioned to seize both pride and joy from the Commodores keeps doing it and humbling them on the field.

Tennessee has won seven in a row in the series (their best run since 1994) by a combined score of 57-14.

“It is a historic program,” Vitello said of Vanderbilt this weekend, “and they've done a lot over a long period of time. But in this league ... you're going to take some lumps and you're going to give some lumps. You’d better be willing to do both.”

For two coaches in the same sport, it’s difficult to envision two more different personalities and approaches than Corbin and Vitello. The clash of styles can be fascinating when their teams collide on the diamond, but this hasn't been a competitive rivalry in the past two seasons.

Vitello has been besting Corbin in a way that few other coaches anywhere have.

Among Tennessee’s seven-game series streak, the only truly close game was Friday’s tide-turning 4-3 Vols win in 12 innings.

“At certain points during the course of the season, you run into teams who really play well,” Corbin said. “We had our opportunity Friday night, and we lost it. … That's a very good (Tennessee) team. I know what their record is, but their record is not indicative of who they are.”

After taking a 3-1 lead in the fifth inning of Friday's opener, Vanderbilt was outscored 29-1 in the next 20 innings.

It was the hitting. It was the pitching. It was everything.

This weekend, Tennessee was even better than Vanderbilt defensively, which hadn’t been the case. An error by Commodores third baseman Davis Diaz allowed the lead-off runner to reach in Tennessee’s five-run second inning. All five were unearned, as they crossed with two outs.

By the end of the second inning Sunday, Tennessee led 5-0.

By the fifth, it was 9-0.

Despite a late rally, Vanderbilt had basically been swept back home already.

No doubt about it: The Vols’ hopes in 2023 are definitely alive.

The Commodores’ hopes are far from dead, too. So long as they don’t run into the Vols again.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee baseball keeps hitting Vanderbilt where it hurts