For a mid-week game in early March, Tennessee's battle with Boston College had an ample amount of energy from both dugouts on Tuesday.
Both teams seemed to live and die on every pitch as the game wound down. With the game reaching extra innings, the passion continued to grow.
In the emotional one-game stand, the Vols fell in 10 innings to Boston College, 7-6 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Tennessee (11-3) trailed by a run. With the Eagles scoring in the top of the frame, all momentum seemed to be in the favor of Boston College (9-1).
However, Christian Moore sent the fourth pitch of his inning-opening at-bat over the right-field wall to tie the game.
This brought up the dangerous Blake Burke. On the first pitch of his plate appearance, he roped a chopper past the first baseman and into the outfield. The ball got caught in no man's land and Burke advanced to third on a triple.
Despite the no-out triple, Tennessee couldn't score and the game was sent to extra innings. Ethan Payne made a critical mistake and tagged up on a short-hit ball resulting in him promptly being gunned out at the plate.
"I watched his feet," said Tennessee coach Tony Vitello. "He's antsy to score on a ground ball. He's going on contact in that situation... Maybe an extra step or two towards home, recover towards third. He never really had his feet under him. I don't know if he would've scored if so. It wasn't a clean defensive play but needed to go right back to the base."
Following this mistake, Cameron Leary drove a ball well over the right-center wall to retake the lead in the top of the 10th.
With the win right there for the taking, mistakes proved to cost the Vols a chance to extend their win streak to 12 games. In the bottom of the 10th, they went down in order.
Although Vitello wasn't pleased with the loss, he also knows it'll help the team going forward.
"Discouraging. The whole effort was," said Vitello. "What's not discouraging is you've got a game that simulates a conference game, a regional game, maybe even more. There aren't just lessons learned but they're also in caps."
The Eagles got to this point with a successful night at the plate. The team used a constant attack to continually plate runs. They never scored more than a single run in an inning but crossed home in seven frames.
This scoring streak started in the third inning. The Vols allowed a run in the following four innings, as well, before also giving up runs in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings.
Leading the team at the plate was Joe Vetrano. The first baseman finished the night with three hits including a double, two home runs, two RBI and three runs.
His pair of jacks weren't the only hits for Boston College to leave the yard in regulation, though. Barry Walsh also hit a home run in the third inning to score the first run of the game.
With six pitchers seeing the mound for Tennessee, there wasn't a single pitcher to blame. Instead, it was all but one pitcher giving up a run.
Getting stuck with the loss is Seth Halvorsen. He pitched two innings while giving up three hits, two walks and two runs.
Next, the Vols will host Morehead State for a 3-game weekend series starting on Friday. First pitch of game one is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.
*****
– TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM.
– ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION.
– SUBSCRIBE TO THE VOLREPORT YOUTUBE CHANNEL.
– FOLLOW VOLREPORT ON TWITTER: @TennesseeRivals, @TMansfieldMedia, @JNichols_2121, @ByNoahTaylor, @TylerIvens, @RealTBannerman, @RyanTSylvia, @Dale_Dowden, @ShayneP_Media.
