Tennessee Sweeps Vanderbilt Behind Dominant Pitching Performances

/in , /by

Drew Beam. Photo: Courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics

Vanderbilt baseball has consistently been the best baseball program in the state of Tennessee for nearly a decade. But this past weekend, the University of Tennessee completed a sweep of the Vandy Boys in a performance that was nothing short of dominance.

This was the first time Vanderbilt has been swept in back-to-back SEC series since 2018, and the first time the team was swept by Tennessee since 2009, which was also played at Hawkins Field.

“I think we’re a well-rounded team and that’s been a work in progress for the last few years,” said Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello. “I feel like we had it last year but maybe this year they’re just a little better.”

The Volunteers are ranked No. 1 nationally and have the best ERA among all DI baseball teams as well as the most home runs. This was on full display all weekend as Tennessee outscored Vanderbilt 16-4 behind excellent pitching from Chase Burns, Chase Dollander and Drew Beam. Beam was near perfect on Sunday’s series closer as he threw a complete game, allowing only two hits in 110 pitches thrown.

“You really just got to congratulate Tennessee,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin postgame. “They were the better team in every way. It’s a good team, a really good team.”

Tennessee started things off on Friday’s series opener, winning 6-2 behind at-bats from Trey Lipscomb and Jordan Beck.

Jordan Beck. Photo: Courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics

Vandy pitcher Chris McElvain struck out the first two Volunteer batters in the first inning until Beck took McElvain deep. In a crazy turn of events, the umpires inspected Beck’s bat and determined that it was not an official bat allowed by the NCAA, forcing him to be called out and cancelling out the home run.

This wouldn’t mean much later on when Luc Lipcius hit a 2-run home run in the second inning. The Commodores scored once more in the fifth inning on an RBI fielder’s choice, but a four-run fifth inning for the Vols behind a 2-run RBI double from Beck solidified its dominant series opener. Throughout Friday night’s game, the Commodores outfield had trouble locating fly balls in the new stadium lights.

Saturday was a similar story as the Vols took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning. Lipscomb set the tone for Tennessee’s offense, going 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and three RBIs. Beck also notched a multi-hit effort, going 2-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Vols pitcher Chase Dollander pitched a strong eight innings giving up only three hits and two runs–another amazing performance from the Volunteers pitching staff.

Sunday’s matinee was a bit closer for the first few innings as Commodore pitcher Patrick Reilly went five innings, only giving up a solo home run to Drew Gilbert in the fourth inning. Christian Little and Thomas Shultz gave up an additional four runs in the last three innings.

The star of the show was Drew Beam, who put on a pitching clinic. He only gave up two hits the entire game, both of which came before the fifth inning. He retired 16 straight batters between the fifth and ninth inning.

His performance earned him a SEC Pitcher of the Week and SEC Freshman of the Week honors.

Next up, Tennessee will host Lipscomb in Knoxville on Tuesday, April 5 and Missouri over the weekend on April 8-10.

Vanderbilt will look to bounce back after the frustrating series as they face Austin Peay on Tuesday before heading to Auburn for a weekend series against Auburn University.

Steven Boero
Latest posts by Steven Boero (see all)