It was a grotesque weekend for Tennessee baseball up I-75 against their border rivals. Kentucky flat-out put it on Tennessee the first two games of their series, winning 9-2 on Friday before embarrassing the Vols 12-2 in an eight inning mercy ruled game on Saturday.
Josh Elander had some words for his team after Saturday’s loss.
“I just think we’ve gotten beat badly twice in a row,” Elander said. “So, at this point, there needs to be more sense of urgency and a little bit more pride. Very, very frustrating
day all the way around, especially after the performance last night. Have to come into tomorrow and basically throw this game in the trash and reset and be ready to go and salvage the weekend tomorrow.
“Maybe pride is not really fair. We’ll have to get with the crew, and we’ll talk to them when we give them a second to let the emotions go away, but we all know we need to be better. It’s two bad days in a row, but we need to turn the page, and we can get on a run here and play our game in our way. But again, with the little things of giving up free 90 feet and not having competitive at-bats, when those continue back-to-back, that can make everything more frustrating, make guys try harder, whatnot. But at this point of the year, they know how they need to compete and they’ve come back from this before. We need to do it again.”
Well, salvage the weekend they did on Sunday. Tennessee got up to a 7-2 lead and hung on by their fingernails for a 10-9 win to take the final game of the series.
Landon Mack was excellent for the Vols, allowing one earned run across six innings. The offense also finally got going after being almost completely AWOL in the first two games. First baseman Levi Clark carried the team on his back at the plate. He slugged two home runs and knocked in five. He delivered the decisive blow in the top of the ninth, with Tennessee clinging to a 7-6 lead. He launched a three-run homer to left center to give Tennessee their last three runs of the game, and they’d need every single one of them.
And that’s because Tennessee’s bullpen continues to be an absolute liability. Over the last three innings of the game, the Wildcats scored eight runs. That’s just not going to cut it. Cam Appenzeller had a particularly rough game. He was tagged for four earned runs on four hits and a hit batter in 0.2 innings. Bo Rhudy also allowed four earned runs in 1.2 innings, and Brandon Arvidson was called on to slam the door. Fortunately, he got the final out on a fly ball to right field with a runner on to end it.
A lot of fixing needs to be done, particularly in the bullpen, with a massive opportunity awaiting next weekend at home against Texas.
