Tennessee lost another series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Sunday afternoon, and this one came with an ejection of Volunteers coach Tony Vitello.
With Auburn up 6-0 in the fifth inning of the seven-inning rubber match, Vitello was tossed for arguing a check swing and took the field to express his views to the home-plate umpire before moving on to the umpires at third base, second base and first base. When he had finished yelling at all four, he headed back into Tennessee’s dugout and tossed a chair.
The No. 11 Tigers wound up defeating the No. 6 Vols 8-1 before a crowd of 6,041, saddling Tennessee with three straight series losses at home for the first time in the Vitello era, which dates to 2018.
“I think some guys will get a little too wrapped up emotionally in what’s going on,” Vitello said afterward in a news conference. “You want guys to play with passion, and I think that’s been a trademark of ours. I do think we have a little extra fight, but the way you execute that is to have your emotions under control.
“In order to be in control, you’ve got to be under control.”
Tennessee is now 37-11 overall and 14-10 in Southeastern Conference play with two league series remaining in the regular season, while Auburn is 33-15 and 13-11 within the SEC. Auburn’s victory in Sunday’s finale was its 100th of all time versus Tennessee against only 44 setbacks.
Amazingly, the Tigers have not dropped two consecutive games to the Vols in the same series since April 1988.
AJ Russell started the series finale for the Vols and cruised through two hitless innings, but Auburn’s third inning began with three singles to load the bases, and Russell was finished for the day. Nate Snead entered the game and threw a wild pitch that scored Chase Fralick, and the Tigers made it 4-0 by the end of that inning on Cade Belyeu’s RBI single to center field, Ike Irish’s fielder’s choice RBI and Lucas Steele’s sacrifice fly to left.
Russell, who continues to work his way back from Tommy John surgery last June, faced a season-high 10 batters.
“It wasn’t like he was out of the zone or not throwing good pitches,” Vitello said. “They did a good job with two strikes throughout the whole series. It spiraled there quickly on him, but he was really good in that first inning.
“You could tell there was an adrenaline difference, and his stuff spoke to that as well.”
Moments before Vitello’s ejection, Brayden Krenzel replaced a struggling Brandon Arvidson on the mound and promptly walked in two runs to account for the 6-0 tally.
Sunday started well for the Vols, as they claimed a 5-4 win in the completion of Saturday’s second game that had to be suspended in the top of the 10th inning in a 4-4 deadlock. Vols ace Liam Doyle, who took the loss in the series opener when he threw only 23 pitches Friday night before that contest was suspended in the middle of the first inning, got the win in the second game.
Doyle yielded a leadoff walk to Irish in the 10th before racking up three strikeouts, but his 11th inning was a bit more adventurous. Auburn’s Bristol Carter collected a two-out double to left and stole third, but he was caught in a rundown and was tagged out at the plate by Doyle.
The Vols opened their half of the 11th with singles by Andrew Fischer and Hunter Ensley, with Dalton Bargo advancing them over with a sacrifice bunt. After Levi Clark was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out, Chris Newstrom singled up the middle to score Fischer for a walk-off win.
Doyle could not have returned had there been a 12th inning, because he was ejected for jawing with Carter after applying the tag, which Vitello said played a part in his ejection.
“That was a spillover from the first game, which I pat myself on the back and everybody else for keeping their composure,” Vitello said. “Our best player got thrown out of the game in an elimination situation for exchanging words with a guy.”
Doyle, who allowed a two-run home run to Irish on Friday that gave Auburn a 2-0 lead in its eventual 6-1 opening triumph, wound up throwing 34 pitches Sunday. He improved to 8-2 while lowering his earned run average to 2.33.
The Vols, the reigning College World Series champions, will look to bounce back when they host Indiana State (22-25) at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“We haven’t discovered the best version of ourselves,” Vitello said. “Because we were playing so well and everybody thought so highly of themselves, we had big margins early in the year. They got really high on themselves and got shocked that they weren’t invincible, and that’s a little bit of it, too.
“They’ve got the ability and they’ve done it before, but we haven’t found the best version of ourselves. They’ve also learned some harsh, difficult lessons to swallow, and if we can put those lessons to use, then it will help.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.