Bad Vibes: Vol Baseball Continues Free Falling

Image: Tennessee Athletics

By Cody McClure

It’s a long day, living in Knoxville. There’s a warning track running through the yard. We’re a bad team because we never miss it. We’re a bad team, and it’s breaking my heart.

Vol Baseball is free falling.

Tennessee lost its fourth consecutive — and fifth of the last six — series over the weekend.

The Vols fell to Vanderbilt in yesterday evening’s rain-delayed rubber match 7-5 after leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning.

It was a frustrating scene to watch, as it seemed to encapsulate the bigger story of the team lately.

Too many stranded runners. Too many stolen bases. Too many errors.

It’s safe to say this team has issues when it comes to the fundamentals of baseball, though it was nice to see the bats somewhat alive yesterday.

On a clear, sunny day, perhaps some of the balls that died at the warning track would have gone out of the park.

Just another what-if.

Much like the disgruntled fan base, the team seemed frustrated, too, as it resorted to an end-of-game skirmish with the Vandy boys. Tony Vitello said it was overblown.

As a result of the weekend’s performance, Vol Baseball continues its free fall in the polls.

Tennessee (39-13, 15-12) comes in at No. 17 in this week’s D1 Baseball poll. Baseball America dropped the Vols to No. 18. USA Today has UT at No. 14.

Considering the Vols haven’t won a home SEC series in two months and are 4-8 vs. the conference in their last 12 home games, perhaps going on the road will be a welcomed change.

Tennessee plays at No. 7 Arkansas this weekend in the final SEC series of the season.

There’s not much time left to figure this out as the postseason looms.

Some are “hitting the panic button.” I’m not ready to do that, simply because baseball is a weird bitch.

But the reality should at least be setting in by now that this team isn’t last year’s team. The pitching isn’t there outside of Friday, and the hitting is inconsistent and untimely.

We got a little spoiled with last year’s lineup that hit 184 home runs — the second-most of any team in the history of college baseball.

It appears that losing Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick, Dylan Dreiling, Cal Stark, Kavares Tears, Drew Beam, Kirby Connell, and Zander Sechrist has affected this team negatively.