Nashville, Tenn--It was largely the same story that Vanderbilt has ran into frequently in this series as it dropped game two of the series to Tennessee by a 7-6 score at Hawkins Field.
Saturday marked Vanderbilt's ninth-straight loss to Tennessee and allowed its rival from out east to pick up its third-straight series win over the Commodores.
Vanderbilt fell to 11-15 in conference play on Saturday with the NCAA Tournament looming.
That team in orange proved to be too much yet again.
"Just inches away from breaking the game open," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "But that's part of it."
Tennessee opened up the scoring in the third as starting catcher Cal Stark reached third on a JD Rogers misplay in right field. Stark's hit was ruled a triple but easily could've been an out or single.
Stark was driven in by Christian Moore in the next at bat as Moore recorded an infield single as Jonathan Vastine fumbled with the ball at shortstop.
That made it 1-0, Tennessee. The Volunteers left two on in the inning, though.
Vanderbilt tied it in the bottom half of the inning as RJ Austin drove in Davis Diaz, who batted ninth on Saturday and reached on a single, with a hard-hit ball off the left field monster.
That ball was almost hit too hard as it bounced right to left fielder Dylan Dreiling and forced Vastine to stay at third. Vanderbilt went on to strand Vastine and Austin which kept it tied.
Carter Holton started Saturday for Vanderbilt and was sharp through three but ran into some trouble in the fourth.
Tennessee made him pay for some crowded basepaths as Stark drove in a run with a bloop single. Holton got out a bases loaded jam as Rogers made a tough turnaround catch in right with two outs to keep a few runs off the board.
That was his second excellent play out there of the day.
Vanderbilt took the lead back on a 432-foot Camden Kozeal two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth that cleared the right field bleachers. Kozeal drove in Colin Barczi, who walked earlier in the inning.
Holton left the game after five innings in which he surrendered seven hits, two runs, one earned run and struck out seven while walking just one.
"That was high temperature," Corbin said of Holton's outing. "It's hard. It's like pushing cement in terms of the game and how it feels."
The Vanderbilt starter's admirable job was quickly negated as Greysen Carter entered the game in the sixth and gave up a three-run homer to Moore that was set up by a hit by pitch as well as a walk.
Moore's homer snuck over the right field wall, it was a surprise that a ball like that got out to say the least.
Tennessee tacked on another to make it a four-run inning as Carter threw a wild pitch that allowed Blake Burke to score and to make it 6-3. Burke took the first pitch after Moore's homer to right field for a single.
"I have confidence in the kids," Corbin said of his bullpen that surrendered four runs on Sunday. "It comes in waves sometimes but you know what; let's just send them back out there again."
A two-run inning that included an RBI infield single by Jack Bulger, who was honored for senior day, as well as a Davis Diaz RBI single cut that lead to 6-5. Vanderbilt left three on as Austin grounded back to the pitcher with two outs.
Moore continued his tremendous hitting throughout the weekend with an RBI single through the right side that made this one 7-5. That sparked Corbin to make a move to Luke Guth, who was Vanderbilt's fourth pitcher of the day.
Vanderbilt went down quietly in the seventh, eighth and fell short in the ninth with a RISP and a one-run deficit that ended up left on and unchanged.
That was the summation of an anticlimactic inning that had the looks of a season-changing one for Vanderbilt.
"We hit the ball hard, certainly several times," Corbin said. "Certainly at the end when it mattered."
Despite Vanderbilt's hard hits, it dropped its seventh-straight SEC game.
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