The reigning champion Tennessee Volunteers have been caught in a mudslide over the past few weeks as they have dropped three SEC series in a row and four of their last five. The Vols, who came into the first half of the season blazing to the No. 1 spot in the D1baseball rankings, have cooled down and found themselves dropping spots every week.
The slide started in early April when 2024 runner-up Texas A&M traveled to Knoxville and proved many of their doubters wrong by winning both games in a Saturday doubleheader to take the series 2-1, including a Game 3 run-rule victory. This series was a major shock to the Vols, as they had put together a combined no-hitter and won in a run-rule of their own the night before.
The Vols recovered the very next weekend when traveling to Oxford, Mississippi, with a close 2-1 series victory of their own against Ole Miss. It was an impressive recovery from the disappointment of the previous weekend. But since that series against Ole Miss, the Vols have had three straight series go to the rubber match, just for a blowout defeat on Sunday.
To their credit, pushing all of these series to a decisive Game 3 is impressive and shows this team’s clear ability to compete with the best. The Vols have no lack of talent in their clubhouse. The issue comes with consistently translating it to the diamond.
In all six of the Vols’ losses over the past three weeks, the team has failed to score more than three runs, a feat that almost seemed like a guarantee during the first half of the season.
Over this season, when the Vols score four or more runs in a game, they are 37-4. When they fail to reach that mark, they are 1-7. Additionally, the average margin of defeat in the third game of a series for the Vols over their four series losses is over eight.
The Vols are not struggling due to a lack of talent. They still have a plethora of threats in the lineup. The only major injury of the season came from standout hitter Gavin Kilen, who missed three weeks in March and April. The main struggle for the Vols’ lineup has been getting all the pieces to come together consistently.
Head coach Tony Vitello spoke about the Vols’ offensive struggles following the Game 3 loss to Auburn over the weekend.
“I think some guys get a little too wrapped up emotionally in what’s going on. You want guys to play with passion. I think that’s been a trademark of ours. Have a little extra fight, I think they do have that,” Vitello said, “but the way you execute that is to have your emotions under control. Sometimes, that can spill over, even for our best guys.”
