Vanderbilt baseball loses eighth straight to Tennessee after late bullpen collapse
Two years, two heartbreaking series openers against Tennessee for Vanderbilt baseball.
Both times, the Commodores (33-17, 11-14 SEC) held late leads in pitchers' duels. While they lost the 2023 game in extra innings, on Friday the culprit was an eighth-inning bullpen collapse that gave the top-ranked Vols (41-9, 18-7) an 8-4 win to extend their rivalry winning streak to eight games and the Commodores' SEC losing streak to six.
Tennessee took an early lead with two runs in the first inning and another in the third. Jacob Humphrey hit a home run in the second inning and a two-run single in the sixth to give Vanderbilt its first lead of the game.
Bryce Cunningham put up a quality start with 6⅔ innings, three runs allowed, two walks and 10 strikeouts. He got a standing ovation as he exited with two outs in the seventh inning.
"He pitched his (expletive) off," coach Tim Corbin said. "After he got through that first inning, I thought he was really good. I thought he commanded the fastball really well. And he attacked and obviously a good offensive team but I thought he did what he needed to do to put us in a good position."
But the eighth inning proved to be disastrous for Vanderbilt as two pitchers combined to give up five runs, including home runs to Kavares Tears and Cannon Peebles.
Bryce Cunningham's start
Cunningham, who gave up nine runs in the first inning of last season's game, started off Friday by giving up a leadoff home run to Christian Moore. He gave up another run in the inning after a walk and a double.
He settled in after the early runs, at one point setting down nine batters in a row.
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Jacob Humphrey returns
Jacob Humphrey was in the starting lineup for the first time since March 31 after dealing with an elbow injury. He immediately provided a spark for the lineup, hitting a solo home run in the second inning.
It was also Humphrey who hit the two-run single to give Vanderbilt its first lead of the game in the sixth inning. He drove in three of the Commodores' four runs.
Bullpen struggles again
Vanderbilt has leaned heavily on its starting pitchers during conference play due to a bullpen that has been relatively thin. That reared its head again as the Commodores struggled to get outs after Cunningham exited the game.
Both Miller Green and Brennan Seiber, two of Vanderbilt's most-used relief arms, gave up home runs in the Vols' five-run eighth inning.
Corbin chose to stick with Green, who was charged with three of the runs and the loss, after he got Blake Burke to ground out to end the seventh inning. After Green gave up a single, home run and triple, Corbin turned to Seiber to try to get a ground ball with the runner on third.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt baseball loses eighth straight to Tennessee Vols in rivalry
