The Commodores clinched a spot in the SEC Tournament Saturday, but they certainly aren't pretending to be thrilled about how they got there.
Tennessee won 9-7 in 10 innings thanks to a two-run home run by Cody Hawn off Nick Christiani to cap a four-hit, four-RBI day; luckily for Vanderbilt, Kentucky had lost just minutes before to Florida to hand the Commodores the eighth and final spot in the tournament.
That was a hollow victory for a team that wanted to control its own destiny.
"I thought we had to win this game to be in there," said center fielder Jonathan White. "Definitely disappointed. That UT could come in here and take three from us in our home field is definitely something that doesn't sit well with anyone right now."
Christiani (5-5) took the loss, going two innings and allowing two earned runs.
In a similar theme all weekend, Vanderbilt (31-24, 12-17) wasted leads of 4-0 and 7-4 en route to its fourth straight loss and first sweep at the hands of the rival Volunteers (24-29, 11-19) since 2000. The Commodores could not come up with a clutch hit of their own, leaving runners stranded in scoring position in the the final three innings, and were generally unable to come up with big hits in the previous two games of the tightly contested series.
White nearly won Friday night's game with a two-RBI single in the eighth but that advantage was also squandered.
"I've been here a long time and we've always come back from deficits," White said. "We're still searching. We're going to give it our all no matter what."
Vanderbilt took an early lead for the first time in the series, scoring three in the first after a sacrifice fly by Aaron Westlake and a two-run single by Andrew Giobbi, and adding a fourth run in the second when Steven Liddle drove in Jason Esposito with an RBI single.
A two hour, 54 minute rain delay hit Hawkins Field in the bottom of the third with Vandy ahead 4-2. Tennessee knotted things up in the fifth with a five-hit, two-run inning, but Westlake put the Commodores right back on top in the bottom of the inning with a three-run home run to left-center, his seventh of the season, to make it 7-4. He finished the season with a .382 average to be the SEC batting champion.
As they had done all series, the Volunteers came right back with a big inning of their own, scoring three runs in the seventh off Chase Reid and Caleb Cotham with five singles. Tennessee had 15 hits on the afternoon: 13 singles and two home runs, Hawn's game-winner and Jarred Frazier's in the third inning.
And their pitching came through too. After Westlake's shot, Stephen McCray, Will Locante (3-1) and Matt Ramsey shut out the Commodores for the final five innings. Locante earned his second win in two days, again pitching out of numerous jams.
"Pretty frustrating," said Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin. "We didn't play winning baseball. I don't want to sound selfish here and say it's all us, the other team had something to do with it. They make things happen."
Corbin described himself and the team as irritated with the close losses but was able to put things in perspective, saying that the "body of work" had allowed Vanderbilt to reach the SEC Tournament even if they did stumble down the stretch. The Commodores will face top-seeded LSU in the first round Wednesday in Hoover, Ala.
"We're in the tournament, everyone's 0-0," Corbin said. "Sleep this one off, pound myself in the head and we'll talk about it tomorrow."
