With a comfortable, five-run cushion heading to the sixth and seemingly every close play swinging in their favor, the Volunteers had to feel confident the momentum generated in Friday’s late rally had in fact spilled over into Saturday’s matinee affair.
Only Tennessee’s offense soon disappeared, the often-so-effective bullpen faltered and the Vols dropped Game Two of the series to Alabama in heartbreaking fashion, falling 7-6 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
“That was a tough one,” head coach Dave Serrano said. “The only thing I can feel good about is that I thought Alabama had to do some things to get back in this game, and you got to give credit where credit is due.”
With the game tied 6-6 in the ninth and the bags chocked full of Crimson Tide runners, the Vols (24-13, 6-11 SEC) still appeared to be close to wiggling out of the ugly bases-loaded jam with no damage inflicted.
Instead, reliever Josh Peterson plunked Alabama third baseman Chance Vincent with an up-an-in changeup, plating the eventual winning run for the Crimson Tide (28-11, 12-5).
Only the pitch quickly turned much more controversial than it originally sounded.
“I told the umpire it didn’t hit his hand and I couldn’t really do anything about it,” catcher David Houser said. “That’s his call. I let coach do everything.”
And did he ever. Serrano argued vehemently with home plate umpire Fred Cannon, claiming the pitch had indeed hit the bat and thus was a foul ball. The four umpires eventually conferred in the middle of the diamond, but the call was upheld, prompting a second face-to-face exchange between Cannon and the Vols’ third-year head coach.
“He said it got the bat, but he also said it hit his hand,” Serrano said. “And that’s what I was confused by. It is what it is. I’m not going to get into that with his judgment call.
“There’s a lot of other things that led up to that.”
For Serrano’s squad, the plethora of negativity began first in the sixth and then in the seventh, where the Crimson Tide slowly chipped away and ultimately erased the Vols’ 6-1 advantage.
Alabama designated hitter Wade Wass opened the sixth with a long solo home run to left-center, and Kyle Overstreet followed with a single — later crossing the plate on an RBI groundout.
The scoring spurt trimmed UT’s lead to 6-3 and chased Vols’ starter Hunter Martin, who allowed seven hits, three runs and a pair of walks in five-plus innings of work.
The freshman from Murfreesboro, Tenn., gave way to sophomore lefty Andy Cox — arguably the Vols’ most productive hurler of the season. But after inducing a double play and a strikeout to limit the damage in the sixth, Cox was far from his usual self.
In the seventh, the Crimson Tide tagged the southpaw for three runs on four singles — the damage possibly being even worse had centerfielder Johnny Youngblood not gunned down an Alabama runner at home to end the frame.
Cox (3-1, 1.62), who leads the Vols in appearances (21) and is second in innings pitched (50), had posted nothing but zeroes in his last five outings — his last run surrendered coming on March 23 against Auburn.
“Andy Cox has been lights out for us, and I don’t think he was off his game today,” Serrano said. “I just thought they put some good swings on some good pitches and beat some of our infielders and drove some balls in the gap.
“We’ve asked a lot of him over the course of the year, and he’s done a wonderful job. This loss hurts, but by no means was it because Andy wasn’t on. We can’t expect him to be at that level that he’s been each and every game. We’ve got to do other things as a team to be able to come out on top.”
After answering Alabama’s initial run with one of their own in the first, the Vols jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the fourth with the benefit of just a single hit.
Derek Lance opened the frame with a walk; Christin Stewart doubled the duo into scoring position, and third baseman Taylor Smart brought home the pair when his grounder to third morphed into a run-scoring throwing error.
Smart then stole third and eventually raced home on Pierce Bily’s sacrifice fly as the Vols’ third baseman just barely slid home ahead of Georgie Salem’s spot-on throw from center field.
Bily, who was penciled into the starting lineup last-minute because of Scott Price’s pregame migraine, unleashed more damage in the fifth, clanking his first career home run high off the left field foul pole.
“I’ve just been working really hard with some of my teammates, hitting before the games and stuff,” said Bily, who finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs. “Hard work, it pays off sometimes.”
The Anaheim, Calif., native started 45 of UT’s 52 games a season ago but had played in just 11 games with 14 at-bats in 2014.
“Pierce gave us chance,” Serrano said. “He put some good swings on pitches, and he took advantage of an opportunity and will probably get another opportunity down the line. It couldn’t happen to a better kid.”
The series concludes Sunday at 2 p.m. as the Vols will send freshman Kyle Serrano (3-2 4.91) to the hill, looking to avoid their first SEC home sweep of the year.
