The Tennessee Volunteers have a new lease on life.
Having lost eight of 11 contests entering their in-state rivalry series against No. 4 Vanderbilt, the rejuvenated Vols polished off an unexpected three-game sweep of the Commodores 10-5 on Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 4,518 inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tennessee followed up Friday night's 4-3 comeback victory in 12 innings with Saturday afternoon's 17-1 shellacking in seven innings, and Sunday's finale resembled the day before when the Vols jumped out to a 9-0 lead through five innings.
The Vols recorded their 12th league sweep in the Tony Vitello era that began in 2018, matching the dozen sweeps the program had in the 15 seasons before his arrival.
"This was way more important for our guys to find who they are," Vitello said afterward in a news conference. "I don't know if it was this series or last week's loss to Tennessee Tech or that maybe one of the guys said something, but that was a fun group to be around the last few days, and it was a totally different group.
"Us finding out who we are was a bigger thing."
Tennessee improved to 26-14 overall and to 8-10 in Southeastern Conference play, while Vanderbilt slipped to 29-11 and to 13-5. The Commodores have now lost seven straight times to the Vols after getting swept on the road for the first time in SEC play since a 2018 trip to Auburn.
The Vols couldn't replicate the nine first-inning runs they tallied with two outs during Saturday's slaughter, but they did amass five two-out runs during Sunday's second inning. Second baseman Jake Kendro, who was subbing for a suspended Christian Moore, got Tennessee's latest superb start going with a double to left field that scored Griffin Merritt.
Maui Ahuna's ensuing double to right-center scored Zane Denton and Kendro to make it 3-0, and Hunter Ensley followed with a home run to left to make it 5-0. Ensley would homer again to ignite a four-run fifth inning, which included Merritt's two-run double and Denton singling home Merritt to give Tennessee its largest lead at 9-0.
Ensley had the two homers among his three hits and drove in three runs, while Merritt collected three RBIs and three runs scored.
"As a team, we're just trying to win games, regardless of the outs or the score or the inning," Ensley said. "People are just competing in the box trying to win a game. This is huge for us, and it builds a lot of confidence after last weekend against Arkansas.
"This team knew it had talent. We just had to piece it all together."
Vols starting pitcher Drew Beam threw six scoreless innings before Vanderbilt got on the board with two runs in the seventh. The Commodores pulled within 10-5 but left three runners on in both the seventh and eighth innings, and Chase Burns entered for the second time this series and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
Tennessee will face Bellarmine on Tuesday before hosting Mississippi State for a three-game series that starts Thursday.
"We came together, got some unity and got on the same page instead of everyone pulling different ways and pointing a finger here and there," Beam said. "It felt good. It was a good team series."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.