Tennessee didn’t lose a nonconference baseball series in any of Tony Vitello’s final five regular seasons as coach of the Volunteers.
The Vols dropped their second nonconference series of the Josh Elander era Sunday afternoon, losing the rubber match to Kent State 9-5 before a crowd of 5,626 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tyler Myatt’s walk-off home run gave Tennessee a 4-3 victory in Friday night’s opener, but the Golden Flashes prevailed 2-1 Saturday and were even more impressive in the finale.
“I think the frustrating thing is just losing back-to-back games on our home field,” Elander said afterward in a news conference. “That’s not acceptable, and our guys know that. A lot of the decisions that I made today were not good, so it’s clearly my fault from the jump.
“Our guys know we have to be better.”
Kent State and 13th-ranked Tennessee are each 5-2 following Sunday’s result.
The last nonconference series the Vols lost during the regular season occurred against Wright State in early March of 2020. Tennessee was scheduled to begin Southeastern Conference play at South Carolina the following weekend, but the sports world was instantly shut down due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
“We’ve just got to be better, and we will,” said Vols junior third baseman Henry Ford, a former Baylor School standout. “This game is full of adversity, and it’s how you handle it and how you bounce back. I think this is a great opportunity for us to come together and really grow from it.”
Said sophomore outfielder Jay Abernathy: “Learning from this is going to be a positive.”
Abernathy took over the leadoff spot from Ford, who batted second Sunday. The pair combined to go 5-for-8 at the plate with three runs scored, with Ford’s third-inning single to left field scoring Abernathy to give Tennessee its only lead of the game at 2-1.
“We could see more of that for sure,” Elander said. “Jay does a great job, and he was using the whole field. I thought it was really good to see him lay down a bunt today, and his speed is just game-changing speed.”
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Evan Blanco started for Tennessee and worked four innings, allowing three runs on three hits and four walks. Six Vols pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, but they also combined on seven walks.
Tennessee committed two errors Sunday after committing three Saturday.
“It’s a long season,” Elander said. “There is a lot of baseball left, but hats off to Kent State for what they did this weekend. This will be good, because our guys can make the decision to be better, and I’m confident that they will.
“The competition and how we handle adversity will ultimately define us as a group.”
The Vols return to action at 4 p.m. Tuesday against visiting Bellarmine before heading to Arlington, Texas, where they will face top-ranked UCLA on Friday.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.