Vanderbilt baseball's seven-game losing streak to Tennessee full of crazy moments, heartbreak
Vanderbilt baseball hasn't beaten Tennessee since 2021. It's been even longer since the Commodores have defeated a No. 1 ranked team, with that coming in 2016.
The Commodores (33-16, 11-13 SEC) will attempt to break both streaks this weekend against the top-ranked Vols (40-9, 17-7).
Vanderbilt desperately needs a win, not just for the sake of the rivalry but also because the Commodores still need two more wins to receive an NCAA Tournament bid and have already been swept three times. While winning the series is likely not a necessity, getting swept again would be a disastrous outcome.
The Commodores' last win over Tennessee came on April 18, 2021, in Knoxville. Vanderbilt was swept in the series in both 2022 (in Nashville) and 2023 (in Knoxville) and dropped a contest in the 2022 SEC Tournament. The Vols were ranked No. 1 in the country as well at the time of the 2022 series.
Several of the team's juniors, including Carter Holton, Devin Futrell, Davis Diaz and Jonathan Vastine, have participated in each of these series and come away without a single win.
Here are some of the key moments in the losing streak:
Vanderbilt-Tennessee extra-innings heartbreak
In the 2023 series opener, Vanderbilt held a 3-1 lead in the ninth inning with closer Nick Maldonado on the mound. Kavares Tears homered to lead off the inning, and then with two outs, Tennessee tied the game with another home run from Dylan Dreiling. Neither team scored in the 10th or 11th innings before the Vols hit a walk-off in the 12th.
Carter Holton, who struck out six in six innings while allowing one run, put up an exceptional performance especially considering that the series was at hitter-friendly Lindsey Nelson Stadium, But Chase Burns was even better for Tennessee in the bullpen, with three one-hit innings and seven strikeouts.
Holton still pitches in Vanderbilt's rotation, but Burns transferred to Wake Forest in the offseason.
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Tennessee's Drew Beam shuts out Vanderbilt
Drew Beam, who like Holton was a 2022 Freshman All-American, is still is an integral part of the Vols' rotation. He threw a two-hit shutout in the final game of the series in 2022.
Both the hits Beam allowed were singles, one of them an infield single by Dominic Keegan.
Jordan Beck's illegal bat and balls lost in Vanderbilt lights
Beam's shutout was the least crazy of the three games in the 2022 series. The first two had plenty of crazy moments.
In the first game, there was the Jordan Beck illegal bat incident, and the balls lost in the lights after new light poles were installed that offseason. That 2022 series took place during the first week of April, and the first game was only the third home night game Vanderbilt had played that season.
The second game saw Holton give up three unearned runs, plus another run that was earned but came partially as the result of catcher's interference. Later that inning, a batter reached on a strikeout/wild pitch and another runner scored after the Commodores were sloppy with the ball after the wild pitch.
The balls lost in the lights, plus the errors in the second game and the catcher's interference, combined to cost Vanderbilt seven runs in the two games, the same margin by which it lost the two contests.
Vanderbilt baseball vs. Tennessee: Schedule, TV info
Friday, May 10: 6 p.m. CT, SEC Network+
Saturday, May 11: 2 p.m. CT, SEC Network
Sunday, May 12: 2 p.m. CT, ESPN2
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 losing streak to Tennessee Vols has crazy moments
