Baseball win over Vanderbilt brought confidence, unity to struggling team

ANDREW PETERS Sports Editor

Griffin Merritt was still out of breath more than 10 minutes after Tennessee’s win over Vanderbilt Friday night.

The graduate transfer had just hit the biggest home run of his career at Tennessee — a walk-off homer that won the Vols game one of the series in extra innings — and he was still running off the adrenaline of celebrating the moment with his teammates.

Merritt knew the win wasn’t just an exciting victory over an in-state rival. He knew what the win meant for a team that has been limping through its season so far.

“We needed something like this,” Merritt said. “I’m happy I could play a role in that. In any shape or form, this team needed a comeback win versus a good team — a kick start really.”

The win did much more than give Tennessee a boost in RPI rankings. It was a “firestarter,” as Friday-night pitcher Andrew Lindsey described it.

“It’s what you need at this point in the year,” Lindsey said. “We look to continue to build on it. I always have confidence in our guys, but maybe for them that was a personal confidence boost.”

Tennessee did build on it, getting a monster 17-1 win over the Commodores Saturday before capping things off with a 10-5 win Sunday to complete the sweep.

The Vols were a different team in their series against Vanderbilt. They played loose and with confidence. They powered home runs the way the historic 2022 team did and brought back the same swagger that team possessed. It was a refreshing scene after the week Tennessee had just been through.

After being swept by Arkansas, Tennessee’s journey back to Knoxville was silent, but deafening at the same time. Something needed to change or the Vols NCAA Tournament hopes would quickly be gone.

“It was a quiet ride. A lot of self thought,” starting pitcher Drew Beam said. “People thinking about things that went good, things that went bad - you take from both. I think the time getting back was a lot of thought, getting in your own head and thinking about what you can change and what you can help and not trying to over do it.”

Whatever change took place wasn’t immediate. Tennessee dropped its midweek game in embarrassing fashion to Tennessee Tech 12-5. The Vols flipped a switch in the days following the four-straight losses.

“It was way more important for our guys to find who they are,” head coach Tony Vitello said. “I don’t know if it was the series or the loss to Tennessee Tech or that we’re deep enough into the year or maybe one of the guys said something, but that was a fun group to be around the last few days, and a totally different group.”

Tennessee sent a reminder to the rest of the SEC that it can still be a dangerous team when playing on all cylinders, but the Vols had to remind themselves that first.

“If things go well, it’s a little bit more positive about coming to the park and realizing what you are capable of doing as a group,” Vitello said. “It helps. At the end of the day, these guys should know fully well what they are capable of and what their best attitude and what their best approach is.”

Tennessee is through the gauntlet of its season, but the task doesn’t get much easier from here. The Vols still have to face another topfive team in South Carolina and a top-15 team in Kentucky with a few challenging road series mixed in between.

But the win over Vanderbilt is the kickstart that Tennessee needed. It inspired confidence and brought the Vols closer as a team, and that unity will be crucial going forward.

“Obviously, there’s still a lot of things we need to work on,” starting pitcher Chase Dol- lander said. “We just need to keep getting better and keep getting closer as a team. I feel like once we do that and once we start clicking, this team is going to be on all cylinders.”

Griffin Merritt (10) stomps on homeplate after hitting a homerun against Vanderbilt at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Sunday April 23, 2023. Bella Hughes / The Daily Beacon