Vols eliminate Vandy in the SEC tournament

Christian Moore hit a two-run home run and Zander Sechrist threw six innings of two-run ball as Tennessee beat Vanderbilt, 6-4, at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala., on Saturday night in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal.

Vanderbilt’s Braden Holcomb hit a two-run homer for Vanderbilt, which was eliminated from the tournament after three wins to start the event.

Moore's homer came off freshman Luke Guth, who was charged with three runs in two innings.

Vanderbilt (38-21) rallied with runs in each of the eighth and ninth, but left the bases loaded in the eighth and stranded a man on third in the ninth against Marcus Phillips, who allowed two runs (one earned) in three innings of work.

Tennessee opened the scoring in the fourth with a pair of runs (one unearned) thanks to Dylan Dreiling’s leadoff double, a throwing error by shortstop Jonathan Vastine that put Hunter Ensley on and scored Dreiling, and later, Cannon Peebles’ sacrifice fly to left that scored the second run.

Holcomb tied it with a home run that scored Matthew Polk, who'd just singled.

Dalton Bargo's sacrifice fly plated a run in the sixth before Moore's blast to center gave Tennessee a 5-2 lead.

Four Vanderbilt freshman--starter Ethan McElvain (one inning), Brennan Seiber, Guth and Alex Kranzler combined to pitch all but 1 1/3 of Vanderbilt's innings. The remainder went to David Horn, who hadn't thrown since May 7 (Louisville).

The Commodores await an all-but-certain bid (and all-but-certain road trip) to next week's NCAA tournament, and will find out their destination on Monday. Vanderbilt hasn't missed an NCAA tournament since 2005, with its streak being the longest in the country.