KNOXVILLE - The seventh and eighth hitters in Vanderbilt's lineup spoiled Tennessee's visions of a series-opening victory on a picturesque Friday night for baseball at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Stephen Scott and Connor Kaiser hit a combined three home runs and reached base a total of seven times to pace the Commodores in a 7-6 series-opening victory.
Trailing by one run, Tennessee (27-24, 10-15 SEC) put runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth innings but failed to score against Vanderbilt reliever Chandler Day, who earned his first save of the year.
"It's really tough on a Friday night," Tennessee shortstop Andre Lipcius said. "I thought we had a lot of chances to win that game and we didn't execute at the end. Real tough one."
The Vols and Commodores (26-23, 12-13) resume their series Saturday at 6 p.m.
Senior catcher Benito Santiago brought Tennessee back from a 7-2 deficit with his two-out grand slam that just barely cleared the right field wall in the seventh inning. Jay Charleston and Justin Ammons walked to begin the eighth and put the Vols in prime position to tie or take the lead.
But Pete Derkay struck out while attempting a bunt, and then Lipcius lined into an inning-ending double play to stifle the rally.
Designated hitter Nico Mascia walked with two outs in the ninth, and pinch runner Cal Gobbell advanced to second on a wild pitch. Then Santiago struck out swinging to end the game.
"It's a bunch of ups and downs," Santiago said. "But overall, I think we played pretty well and we put ourselves in situations for us to win. We've just to come out, turn the page and do it tomorrow."
When Tennessee returns to the ballpark tomorrow, head coach Tony Vitello will be back in the dugout.
Vitello was suspended for two games last Saturday during Tennessee's series with Kentucky for a prolonged argument with an umpire after a balk call on Vols' pitcher Sean Hunley.
Prohibited from being with the team before or during Friday night's game, Vitello instead set up a lemonade stand a block away from the stadium and handed out drinks, pizza and tickets to fans before the game.
The effort, which Vitello described as a distraction from the pain of missing a crucial SEC game, also helped raise money for Court Appointed Special Advocates, an organization that helps abused and neglected children.
"To do that was a nice distraction and then literally got to meet some people that I never have who said some pretty shocking things to me about, 'hey this is my first game back in ten years' and things like that," Vitello said. "I had planned for that thing to be low key. I didn't mean for media to show up and pictures and all this stuff. But it was nice that people paid attention. I would like to think it's positive publicity for us."
Vitello said the lemonade stand brought in $354 for CASA from fans, an amount that the baseball program plans to at least match.
The in-state series is critical for both teams as they fight for postseason berths. Tennessee entered the weekend 12th place in the SEC standings - the last qualifying spot for the SEC tournament - with only a series against Missouri remaining on the schedule after this weekend.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, is considered a bubble team for NCAA regional consideration.
Vitello described watching Friday night's loss away from the team as "painful."
"It's time," the first-year coach said of his looming return to the dugout. "It's been a week. And I'm not trying to make a bold statement against what happened or anything. It's just kind of drug out. Today was a little bit different set of emotions, just kind of sitting there and wearing it basically."
The Commodores began the scoring with Scott's solo homer to lead off the inning against Tennessee starter Will Heflin.
After the next two hitters reached, Zach Linginfelter entered for Heflin. Two more runs scored, both credited to Heflin, to give Vanderbilt a 3-0 edge.
The Commodores extended the advantage to 4-0 in the fourth on a double from Kaiser that scored Scott, who reached with two outs when he was hit by a pitch.
Lipcius homered to lead off the fifth for Tennessee and then Brodie Leftridge lifted a sacrifice fly to score Evan Russell, bringing the Vols within 4-2.
But Scott and Kaiser struck again. Scott checked a swing with two strikes and two outs in the sixth. Tennessee's players began to run off the field as if the third out had been recorded, but the ruling was that Scott did not swing.
He then homered over the center field fence, and Kaiser followed with a blast over the right field wall to make it 7-2 before Santiago's grand slam brought the Vols within a run.
"It'd be nice to jump out on top tomorrow," Vitello said. "But if we don't, the theme is there that our guys will stay in the fight."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.