A mid-week win over the Longwood Lancers didn’t seem like much of a challenge for the Tennessee Volunteers. They never thought their weekend three-game shutout from Vanderbilt would pale in comparison to Tuesday night’s game.
Even at times with bases loaded and two-outs on the board, the Diamond Vols weren’t able to muster their previous two-out magic at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The team struggled through all nine innings, failing to put more than five runs on the board and losing an early 2-1 lead in the second, never to be seen again. Head coach Dave Serrano said the game was a result of his team not making plays.
“Give Longwood credit,” he said. “They put some good swings on balls. It’s not the best team that wins, it’s the team that plays the best and they played better than we did. We didn’t deserve that win.”
While the Vols managed some good hits throughout each inning, the team left 16 players on base, unable to bring more than a few home and ending the night with a 7-5 loss to the Lancers. Serrano said it takes a lot of things to lead to a loss like that.
“We’re not making plays that we have to make to be a successful team and that’s what’s killing us,” Serrano said, shaking his head. “We left a lot of guys on base today. There’s no way to look around that.”
He said he was tired of making excuses for the team.
“I’m over saying inexperience is costing us because we’ve had enough experience,” Serrano said. “We’ve gone through some tough times and we aren’t learning enough through our tough times to come out and feel good about victories at the end.”
Junior Taylor Smart was one of the few Vols who seemed to come into the game with his eye on the prize. The infielder had four at-bats, producing several steals and three base hits and scoring two runs. He said it’s hard on him and on the team to be left on base at the end of an inning.
“I did what I could at the plate and barreled some balls up and unfortunately it didn’t happen with us scoring the runs,” he said.
Throughout the game, the Vols had opportunity after opportunity to come out with the win, even down to the bottom of the ninth. But with both sophomore Will Maddox and freshman Jeff Moberg on base, junior Scott Price grounded out to second base and the game was over.
“I’m believing that we’re going to win every single inning, every pitch and every game,” Smart said. “… I had all the confidence in Scott Price to come through at the end there whether he’d hit a single to keep everything going or whether he’d come up big and hit a home run and win the game or tie the game or whatever it may be, I had belief in him because he’s a great hitter, it just didn’t turn out our way.”
Serrano said he felt the game was lost on the defensive end.
“I’m a firm believer that it all starts with defense,” he said. “Everything starts, momentum of the team, everything starts with defense. That’s how you win games. We’ve been hurting ourselves. We have no one to blame but ourselves in not taking care of the baseball and not making enough plays.”
Smart said it was a tough game and tough loss for the team as they head into a weekend series against South Carolina.
“You have to flush this loss here and come back ready to go in to practice and we’re going to try to win every pitch in practice, and I know I’m going to do everything I can to become a better baseball player,” Smart said.
The Vols’ first game against the South Carolina Gamecocks is set for Friday at 6 p.m.
