Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin after being swept by Tennessee: 'They put us to sleep'

Vanderbilt has owned baseball in the state for nearly all of Tim Corbin's two decades as coach of the Commodores. 

Not this year. Not now.

Tony Vitello's Tennessee Vols came into Nashville already the consensus No. 1 team in the country and came out of it with a stifling sweep, the first time Vanderbilt was swept at home by an SEC opponent since 2009 (also by the Vols).

While the Commodores (20-7, 4-5 SEC) are the team typically known for pitching, it was Tennessee that flummoxed Vanderbilt hitters, filling up the strike zone with velocity. On Sunday, Drew Beam pitched a complete-game shutout for the Vols (27-1, 9-0), and on Saturday, Chase Dollander pitched into the ninth inning, allowing two runs.

The Commodores struck out 35 batters across the three games compared to 21 for Tennessee. But Vanderbilt was largely unable to get on base or make hard contact.

"I just gotta congratulate Tennessee," Corbin said. "They were the far better team in really every way. It's a really good team that kind of suppressed us with their arms. There's no doubt about that. They put us to sleep. I mean, they just didn't give us anything, and they flooded the strike zone the entire weekend. So they just made it difficult."

Friday's game had all the requisite drama of a revitalized rivalry, with a controversy over an illegal bat used by Jordan Beck in the first inning, then two dropped fly balls. But after the dust settled, it was all Tennessee.

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Anemic offense

Just five players – Enrique Bradfield, Spencer Jones, Dominic Keegan, Javier Vaz and Carter Young – reached base a total of 14 times across the series. None of the other six players who recorded at least one plate appearance against the Vols got on base. Corbin didn't critique his team's approach at the plate but instead complimented what Tennessee brought on the mound.

"The thing about energy is it's created by offense and getting guys on base," Corbin said. "And we took the energy out of the environment, they did, I should say, just because they they took us off the field. And we made a lot of quick walks back to our dugout."

The highlight of the weekend offensively was in the seventh inning of Saturday's game, when Bradfield and Jones hit home runs, but that was with Vanderbilt already down 5-0.

Sunday's game was the nadir, in which the Commodores had just two hits, both singles, and didn't earn a walk.

In Friday's game, Vanderbilt had six hits to Tennessee's seven, with two of those Vols hits coming on dropped fly balls. But the Commodores' hits were scattered, while Tennessee was able to string its hits together.

Pitching progress

Despite the sweep, Vanderbilt's pitching largely performed better than it did in a series loss to South Carolina. 

On Friday, junior Chris McElvain allowed six runs in 4⅔ innings, but some of that was because Commodores outfielders lost two balls in the lights that dropped for hits. Sophomore Hunter Owen relieved McElvain and pitched 4⅓ scoreless innings with seven strikeouts after taking the loss in the rubber match against South Carolina.

On Saturday, freshman Carter Holton allowed a three-run first and once again faced some bad luck with a catcher's interference and a wild pitch on a strikeout. Unlike against the Gamecocks, Holton was able to settle down and keep his team in the game. Three of the five runs he allowed were unearned.

Making his second start of the season on Sunday, sophomore Patrick Reilly struggled a bit with his command but was largely able to work around it. He allowed just a solo home run in five innings with four walks and four strikeouts but took the loss. The bullpen did have its fair share of struggles on Sunday, with Christian Little, Thomas Schultz and Grayson Moore all allowing runs in the late innings.

"We pitched well, though," Corbin said. "I mean, I saw a lot of growth in the three games with our bullpen. Particularly (Saturday), not so much (Sunday). But they were just very attacking on the other side."

Corbin isn't thinking too far ahead regarding the still-unsettled Sunday starter position. When asked whether Reilly had earned the role, Corbin said he wasn't in the mood to answer the question, then said, "I just want to take a hammer and hit myself over the head."

Regrouping

Vanderbilt has lost back-to-back SEC series for the first time since 2018, when the team lost three straight series culminating in a sweep at the hands of Auburn, the most recent time the Commodores had been swept. But that team, despite being unseeded in the NCAA Tournament, still made it to the doorstep of Omaha.  Corbin knows it's a long season and there's still time to recover.

Vanderbilt next plays in a midweek game against Austin Peay on Tuesday, a day Corbin said would be important to his team to getting back on track.

"We just got to start feeling again," Corbin said. "But that's kind of the nature of this game. You know, every team goes through it at some point in time. There's reasons for it. ... This game has a way of coming back around to people who treat it well. And we do.

"And you know, they said that the game is very easy for that group right now. You know, across the street, they're playing very well, the game's difficult for us right now. But it's not always going to be that way."

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.