Tennessee dropped a heartbreaker in its SEC Tournament opener, falling to Alabama in 11 innings.
Alabama 3 6 2
Tennessee 2 10 2
W — Chase Lee, L — Sean Hunley
Notes
Tennessee sports is never dull and that showed itself in a crazy bottom half of the ninth inning. The Vols got runners on the corners after back-to-back hits from Christian Scott and Connor Pavolony and that’s when the mayhem started. The Alabama second baseman dropped a hard hit Liam Spence liner and Connor Pavolony though he caught it staying at first and starting an odd play. Then it looked like Tennessee had won as Jake Rucker beat out a double play ball to win the game but Max Fergusonw as called for a questionable runner’s interference call that ended the inning and kept the game alive.
The Vols pitching was strong again with Will Heflin allowing two runs in 5.1 innings, Camden Sewell allowing no runs and just one baserunner in 2.2 innings and Sean Hunley allowing one run, the game winning run, in three innings. The two hits that Hunley gave up were the only two baserunners he surrendered. Sewell continues to pitch really well and I think it’s hard not to feel really confident about where Tennessee’s pitching is right now.
Tennessee’s lineup struggled with Alabama starter Jacob McNairy tallying just three hits in 4.2 innings. After giving up two hits in the first inning, McNairy didn’t allow a baserunner until the fifth inning. Against Alabama’s bullpen— and two of its best arms— Tennessee’s bats came alive with seven hits. The Vols struggled to get runs in, stranding the go-ahead run on third with less than two outs in the seventh and a runner on second in the 10th inning on top of the ninth inning.
Credit Christian Scott, he’s seen very little playing time in SEC play and came in to pinch run before singling in his first at-bat and working a competitive at-bat before lining out in his second at-bat.
Chad Dallas will get the ball for Tennessee Thursday morning against Mississippi State. First pitch from the Hoover Met is set for 10:30 a.m. ET.
Quotes
Tony Vitello on what he was told on the runner’s interference call
“Yeah, I asked him if he -- he said he hit him in the nuts. So I was trying to get clarification. So I guess I was either a little too demonstrative with my body language or you're a really good lip reader. Maybe that was disrespectful in the fashion that I asked, but obviously, there was a lot of energy in the park at that point. That's all I got on that deal.
Kind of with my opening statement, I don't have really clear thoughts about the game other than it's about the ballplayers, man. Guys out there playing ball, and I certainly don't want to discredit anything Lee did. He's one of many examples. You might see another closer here on the field in a second. Fergie is this type of guy. Not a lot of credit or shine in high school, but if you're a good kid and a hard worker and compete like these guys do, good things seem to happen. Those were the guys that were out on the field. Both teams kind of committed to their closer, and again, credit to their guy. But I'll live and die with our guy Sean Hunley any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
Vitello on what he saw on the runner’s interference call
“I saw Max slide straight into the base. Maybe too demonstrative. Still young and dumb. Sometimes my etiquette isn't the best. That's why I was pointing to the slide mark there. He slid straight into the base. The replay, I just checked the replay one time to see what my opinion was. I didn't ask Fergie what was going on, if he was protecting his face or whatever. So that's my read is a pitcher made a great pitch, one of the best players ever to play at Tennessee did what he needed to do, short through the middle, kind of what we were talking about against a good -- a pretty dang good pitcher with a lot of movement. We want to play ball hard. There's teams here probably with more talent than us, so we want to play hard, and we anticipate or expect our guys to run as fast as they can from point A to point B. In my opinion, that's what Rucker and Fergie did in that situation.
Vitello on if there’s a positive to seeing a bunch of craziness thrown at his team in the first postseason game
“Absolutely. Emotions are going to run high. This weekend, next weekend, they certainly ran high in the SEC. That's the benefit you get thrown into a fire every weekend, and you've got to do it ten times. You get as much practice as anybody in the country at learning to control adrenaline, learning to control emotions, and then just kind of feeling your way through stuff. Kudos to a kid like Christian Scott. He almost had a game-tying homer, I think last year, or the last time we were here, against Auburn, and he came off the bench and was phenomenal for us today, and a lot of that has to do with him controlling his emotions. He's come a long way from what he was as a freshman that year he did that. Sean Hunley has got the world coming down around him, it seems like every time he's out there, but in particular today. He led by example by controlling his emotions.”
Vitello on giving Will Heflin the ball today
“I love him. He's earned everybody's respect around here as a starter, as a person. The Tennessee Vols are here for the first time in a long time. We barely even caught our breath last trip here, and we had to go home. So he's been here, he's done it. He's one of the big reasons why we're in this position. And then because he was so efficient -- I mean, that's maybe an emotional answer, but if there's any upside to it, we were fortunate that Will was efficient with his pitch count against South Carolina. We decided to go with Sewell, just like we did today, to get us out of a jam at South Carolina, but he only ended up with 60 pitches. We feel grateful for the way he threw today in a lot of different ways, and one way is that Chad and Blade can stay on task. And Will Heflin, since he got the job, has kind of always been the guy, Tell when you want me to throw the ball, and I'll do it. And he walked by me in the hall and said he'll be ready to go on Friday. I didn't even see his pitch count. I don't remember it. I appreciate that thought, but I don't know if it will be Friday for Will again. We'll see.”
Will Heflin on what was working for him today
“Yeah, I had good command of my fastball early on, and I was able to land the off-speed, which is always a big -- it's necessary for me to have success. That's kind of the way it went, and they hit a couple balls right at us, and they played really sharp on defense behind me the whole day. And I didn't expect anything less. This team comes into this atmosphere, and it's what we thrive on, and we're really looking forward to it. It burns a little bit that we came out on the bottom end, but I thought we played really well.”
Luc Lipcius on having an abundance of hard hit outs
“It's frustrating, but every time it happens, we know it helps us win. Getting those hard contacts are part of our game, and we know we're stacking those up to fall later. Hopefully, we come out and keep swinging it like we have, and they'll just fall later in the tournament.”
Lipcius on what Jacob McNairy did to keep them off balance
“I think he was spotting his fastball well. He was mixing his off-speed pretty well. I think we just got a little bit too under the ball. We heard on the scouting report he had a lot of onside run on his ball. So we really focused on getting to the outside of it. I think we got just under a few balls. It's not like we were striking out every time missing it completely, but he did keep us off balance and was able to get the fly ball outs.”
Alabama 3 6 2
Tennessee 2 10 2
W — Chase Lee, L — Sean Hunley
Notes
Tennessee sports is never dull and that showed itself in a crazy bottom half of the ninth inning. The Vols got runners on the corners after back-to-back hits from Christian Scott and Connor Pavolony and that’s when the mayhem started. The Alabama second baseman dropped a hard hit Liam Spence liner and Connor Pavolony though he caught it staying at first and starting an odd play. Then it looked like Tennessee had won as Jake Rucker beat out a double play ball to win the game but Max Fergusonw as called for a questionable runner’s interference call that ended the inning and kept the game alive.
The Vols pitching was strong again with Will Heflin allowing two runs in 5.1 innings, Camden Sewell allowing no runs and just one baserunner in 2.2 innings and Sean Hunley allowing one run, the game winning run, in three innings. The two hits that Hunley gave up were the only two baserunners he surrendered. Sewell continues to pitch really well and I think it’s hard not to feel really confident about where Tennessee’s pitching is right now.
Tennessee’s lineup struggled with Alabama starter Jacob McNairy tallying just three hits in 4.2 innings. After giving up two hits in the first inning, McNairy didn’t allow a baserunner until the fifth inning. Against Alabama’s bullpen— and two of its best arms— Tennessee’s bats came alive with seven hits. The Vols struggled to get runs in, stranding the go-ahead run on third with less than two outs in the seventh and a runner on second in the 10th inning on top of the ninth inning.
Credit Christian Scott, he’s seen very little playing time in SEC play and came in to pinch run before singling in his first at-bat and working a competitive at-bat before lining out in his second at-bat.
Chad Dallas will get the ball for Tennessee Thursday morning against Mississippi State. First pitch from the Hoover Met is set for 10:30 a.m. ET.
Quotes
Tony Vitello on what he was told on the runner’s interference call
“Yeah, I asked him if he -- he said he hit him in the nuts. So I was trying to get clarification. So I guess I was either a little too demonstrative with my body language or you're a really good lip reader. Maybe that was disrespectful in the fashion that I asked, but obviously, there was a lot of energy in the park at that point. That's all I got on that deal.
Kind of with my opening statement, I don't have really clear thoughts about the game other than it's about the ballplayers, man. Guys out there playing ball, and I certainly don't want to discredit anything Lee did. He's one of many examples. You might see another closer here on the field in a second. Fergie is this type of guy. Not a lot of credit or shine in high school, but if you're a good kid and a hard worker and compete like these guys do, good things seem to happen. Those were the guys that were out on the field. Both teams kind of committed to their closer, and again, credit to their guy. But I'll live and die with our guy Sean Hunley any day of the week and twice on Sunday.”
Vitello on what he saw on the runner’s interference call
“I saw Max slide straight into the base. Maybe too demonstrative. Still young and dumb. Sometimes my etiquette isn't the best. That's why I was pointing to the slide mark there. He slid straight into the base. The replay, I just checked the replay one time to see what my opinion was. I didn't ask Fergie what was going on, if he was protecting his face or whatever. So that's my read is a pitcher made a great pitch, one of the best players ever to play at Tennessee did what he needed to do, short through the middle, kind of what we were talking about against a good -- a pretty dang good pitcher with a lot of movement. We want to play ball hard. There's teams here probably with more talent than us, so we want to play hard, and we anticipate or expect our guys to run as fast as they can from point A to point B. In my opinion, that's what Rucker and Fergie did in that situation.
Vitello on if there’s a positive to seeing a bunch of craziness thrown at his team in the first postseason game
“Absolutely. Emotions are going to run high. This weekend, next weekend, they certainly ran high in the SEC. That's the benefit you get thrown into a fire every weekend, and you've got to do it ten times. You get as much practice as anybody in the country at learning to control adrenaline, learning to control emotions, and then just kind of feeling your way through stuff. Kudos to a kid like Christian Scott. He almost had a game-tying homer, I think last year, or the last time we were here, against Auburn, and he came off the bench and was phenomenal for us today, and a lot of that has to do with him controlling his emotions. He's come a long way from what he was as a freshman that year he did that. Sean Hunley has got the world coming down around him, it seems like every time he's out there, but in particular today. He led by example by controlling his emotions.”
Vitello on giving Will Heflin the ball today
“I love him. He's earned everybody's respect around here as a starter, as a person. The Tennessee Vols are here for the first time in a long time. We barely even caught our breath last trip here, and we had to go home. So he's been here, he's done it. He's one of the big reasons why we're in this position. And then because he was so efficient -- I mean, that's maybe an emotional answer, but if there's any upside to it, we were fortunate that Will was efficient with his pitch count against South Carolina. We decided to go with Sewell, just like we did today, to get us out of a jam at South Carolina, but he only ended up with 60 pitches. We feel grateful for the way he threw today in a lot of different ways, and one way is that Chad and Blade can stay on task. And Will Heflin, since he got the job, has kind of always been the guy, Tell when you want me to throw the ball, and I'll do it. And he walked by me in the hall and said he'll be ready to go on Friday. I didn't even see his pitch count. I don't remember it. I appreciate that thought, but I don't know if it will be Friday for Will again. We'll see.”
Will Heflin on what was working for him today
“Yeah, I had good command of my fastball early on, and I was able to land the off-speed, which is always a big -- it's necessary for me to have success. That's kind of the way it went, and they hit a couple balls right at us, and they played really sharp on defense behind me the whole day. And I didn't expect anything less. This team comes into this atmosphere, and it's what we thrive on, and we're really looking forward to it. It burns a little bit that we came out on the bottom end, but I thought we played really well.”
Luc Lipcius on having an abundance of hard hit outs
“It's frustrating, but every time it happens, we know it helps us win. Getting those hard contacts are part of our game, and we know we're stacking those up to fall later. Hopefully, we come out and keep swinging it like we have, and they'll just fall later in the tournament.”
Lipcius on what Jacob McNairy did to keep them off balance
“I think he was spotting his fastball well. He was mixing his off-speed pretty well. I think we just got a little bit too under the ball. We heard on the scouting report he had a lot of onside run on his ball. So we really focused on getting to the outside of it. I think we got just under a few balls. It's not like we were striking out every time missing it completely, but he did keep us off balance and was able to get the fly ball outs.”
