Christian Moore ejected from Tennessee baseball vs. Vanderbilt, faces suspension
Christian Moore was ejected in the seventh inning of Tennessee baseball's game against Vanderbilt on Saturday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Vols sophomore will be suspended for Sunday's series finale as No. 20 Tennessee (25-14, 7-10 SEC) goes for the sweep against the No. 4 Commodores (29-10, 13-4). UT walloped Vanderbilt 17-1 on Saturday in a seven-inning, run-rule victory.
"I’ll acknowledge the fact that CMo has got a lot of passion, and I’d rather have guys with passion than without," Vols coach Tony Vitello said. "I also will acknowledge the fact that he has got his teammates back. I think that was the intent of what he was doing, but I also think the situation––with all due respect to the team we played and the scoreboard––it wasn’t necessary.
Moore ran from second base to defend Vols pitcher Chase Dollander, who was covering first base for a potential double play when Vanderbilt's Troy LaNeve ran into Dollander. Moore got into LaNeve's face before the umpires got Moore away from the play and Vols director of baseball operations Chad Zurcher walked with Moore toward the dugout.
Moore returned to his position in the field but was then ejected.
The ejection occurred with one out in the top of the seventh inning. First baseman Blake Burke caught a foul pop out from T.J. McKenzie, which caused Dollander to cover first.
Vitello said the umpires explained that "they needed to take action for whatever had gone done."
"What led up to it was their guy running the bases hard regardless of the score and our guy getting over to cover first base in Doe (Chase Dollander), and I don’t know what Doe said about it, but there was contact," Vitello said. "But it was, I don’t want to say incidental, but it was two guys playing baseball, man."
Vitello indicated he was going to replace Moore regardless, but then Moore was ejected. Freshman Jake Kendro entered the final two outs.
"It might be a good thing," Vitello said. "A guy gets an opportunity tomorrow. I don’t know who it is, but there’s a lot of guys over there itching to get out there and play, and at the very least somebody, and it’ll probably be somebody young, again sticking with that theme, will get that opportunity.”
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Christian Moore ejected from Tennessee baseball vs. Vanderbilt, faces suspension
