Vanderbilt baseball used a pair of big innings in the middle of the game to defeat Tennessee 10-6 and even up the weekend series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
It was one of Marcus Phillips worst outings of the season while more bullpen and defensive issues plagued the Vols. Here’s how it went down.
Vanderbilt Fully Takes Advantage Of Marcus Phillips Slow Delivery
The game’s first three pitches illustrated Tennessee’s worst nightmare with Marcus Phillips on the mound against Vanderbilt.
Phillips hit Vanderbilt leadoff man Rustan Rigdon on the first pitch of the game. Rigdon stole second on the second pitch of the game and third on the third pitch of the game. RJ Austin did his job, driving Rigdon home with a groundout to second base.
After a clean second inning, Vanderbilt tied the game in the third inning in similar fashion. Jacob Humphrey doubled to left-center field. Humphrey stole third two at-bats later and scored on a Rigdon groundout to shortstop.
In the first three innings, Vanderbilt scored two runs on one hit and two baserunners. Those early runs magnified later issues.
Things Get Away From Phillips In The Fourth Inning
Vanderbilt’s success on the base paths overshadowed what was an otherwise strong first few innings for Phillips. But things got away from Phillips in the fourth inning.
Riley Nelson led off the inning with a single and then it took Phillips 11 pitches to strikeout Brodie Johnson. Braden Holcomb stepped into the batter’s box ready to hit, skying a two-run homer to right-center field.
Phillips biggest mistake of the inning came two at-bats later with two outs when he thought a Jonathan Vastine grounder was going foul and was slow to cover the bag leading to an infield single. A hit-by pitch and Mike Mancini single later and Vanderbilt’s lead was 5-2 and Phillips’ day was over.
The junior’s 3.2 innings pitched was his second shortest outing of the season. His five earned runs were Phillips’ most of the season.
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Tennessee Grabs Momentum And Quickly Loses It
Tennessee had little life after Vanderbilt’s three-run fourth inning to take the lead. But the Vols used a pair of two-out RBI singles from Dalton Bargo and Dean Curley to cut the deficit to 6-4.
How did the Vols respond? Offering up a leadoff walk and an errors on a pickoff attempt allowing the runner to reach second.
Vanderbilt scored four runs in the sixth against four Tennessee pitchers. The Vols committed two errors, including a Dean Curley throwing error on what would have been an inning ending double play, and walked two batters.
There were some tough breaks on softly hit singles, but it was a debacle of an inning any way you slice it as bad baseball cost the Vols again.
Long Balls Propel Tennessee’s Offense
The top three bats in Tennessee’s order all went deep in the game two loss.
Hunter Ensley gave Tennessee a 2-1 lead in the first inning with a line drive homer off the batter’s eye. Then in the seventh inning, Gavin Kilen and Andrew Fischer went back-to-back to cut the deficit to four runs and give the Vols a brief spark.
Kilen’s 14th homer of the season was a 416-foot no doubter to right field. Fischer’s 18th of the season was a line drive shot off the batter’s eye in centerfield.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee and Vanderbilt conclude its weekend series on Mother’s Day at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. First pitch is at 3 p.m. ET with ESPN2 broadcasting the game.
