Tennessee picked up its third consecutive win at the SEC Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Hoover to advance to Sunday's Championship Game.
In their fourth game in four days, the Vols (45-15) beat 6-seed Florida 4-0 to avoid elimination one last time despite losing their opener of the tournament to Alabama. They’ll now play in the SEC Tournament title game for the first time since 1995.
Sewell Shines
Camden Sewell (W, 4-1) received the ball and made his third start of the season against the Gators. It marked his first start against an SEC opponent.
Despite having worked out of the bullpen for the majority of the year, Sewell took the ball on the bump and shutdown Florida (38-20). The Cleveland, Tennessee pitched six scoreless innings, struck out a career-high six hitters, didn’t walk a batter and only gave up two hits.
“Camden Sewell was the ultimate leader today,” Vols head coach Tony Vitello told the media after the game. “t was kind of our plan all along, when the postseason would roll around, to use him as a starter. He's kind of been a swing man for us. He started in the regional as a freshman. He's fully capable, as you saw today. I think Camden Sewell can win this game today, but Camden Sewell in the zone showed up, or whatever you want to call it. He was in a flow there, and it's pretty special to watch. We certainly owe him a big, big thanks.”
It was the second time this Sewell has pitched. He threw 27 pitches in Tennessee’s loss to Alabama on Wednesday. In 2.2 innings of work, he didn’t allow a hit or run to the Crimson Tide.
“I feel like the biggest thing was just get ahead in the count,” Sewell said. “The guys behind me played great, and they also put up some runs. As a pitcher, not much more you can ask for besides just go out there, attack hitters, and whatever happens happens.”
“His tempo was awesome,” Vitello added. “Sometimes he gets a little hyped up. He has an up-tempo delivery, and he likes to work quick. Both starters were the same in that fashion. But sometimes he'll take that to an extreme and let his emotions get the best of him and get going fast.
“No disrespect, obviously, to Florida. They could beat anybody in the country, but if he just throws the ball the way he's capable of, he could beat those guys today or at least give us a chance to win. But, again, I think he was excited about the opportunity we gave him and then also kind of got in a little bit of a flow there. Really, again, that could just be who he is. Sometimes he'll disrupt that flow from getting too excited or getting too emotional on the mound. So a great personal lesson for him to carry into his next effort.”
Hunley Can’t Be Shook
Redmond Walsh and Sean Hunley helped Sewell complete the shutout by pitching three scoreless innings to finish off the Gators.
Tennessee ran Sewell back out for the top of the seventh, and after he plunked Jud Fabian to lead off the inning, went to Walsh out of the bullpen. The senior lefty got the Vols out of the inning without allowing a run to score courtesy of a fly ball, a strikeout and a ground ball.
Vitello then turned to Hunley to finish the game. Hunley worked around a Jake Rucker error with two outs in the eighth to keep Florida off the board and then avoided trouble in the bottom of the ninth despite the Gators doing their best to rattle him.
“Sean's a special dude,” Hunley said. “He stays composed. As a pitcher, he's probably the best on the team of being composed when things go bad and not letting it affect the outing. You saw that today. He's a winner.”
Florida reached on a weak ground ball that found a hole to begin the inning and then had runners on first and second after Jordan Beck lost a ball in the sun out in right field. After a Frank Anderson mound visit, Hunley got a ground ball to Rucker, who stepped up on the bag for first out, and then tossed it over to first for the second out of the inning. Hunley then got a fly ball to center to end the game.
“That guy's composure is unreal,” Liam Spence said. “He just knows how to slow the game down and focus on what he's going to do next pitch and make that pitch. Hat's off to him for the way he can calm himself down in a big moment in a high pressure situation. It's very impressive.”
Frank Anderson magic
Pitching coach Frank Anderson plays a huge role in his pitchers maintaining their composure in high-leverage situations. It feels as if every single time Anderson comes out to talk to whoever is in a jam, that player immediately gets out of it.
“Frank has been around as long as anybody, and all the umpires in the league, all you've got to do is ask them how competitive he is,” Vitello said. “It's to a fault, but also he's incredibly intelligent, and he uses that competitiveness in combination with his thoughts, and that's how he gets guys like Garrett Crochet from point A to a point B that's almost on another level or really is.”
After Florida got runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, Anderson took a stroll to the mound to consult Hunley. Hunley got a double play to essentially end the game on the very next pitch.
“There's no magic in any pregame speech we have or coaching advice or anything like that, but I think our guys are able to calm themselves and play catch whether it be the defense or the guys on the mound when he goes out there and kind of handles the situation,” Vitello said. “It makes it easy on me.”
Bats do just enough
Tennessee didn’t tally double-digit hits against the Gators as it had in its three previous SEC Tournament games, but it did rack up eight hits to drive in four runs. And with Sewell, Walsh and Hunley pitching the way that they were, four runs was more than enough.
“Overall, the team showed up with good energy today and played well,” Vitello said. “It's an important time of year to have some consistency to you because the surroundings, they're loud, the lights are bright, and they're ever changing too with what's going on. You're best off just kind of relying on your training, which is the great conference of the SEC, and just play ball.”
The Vols scored three of their four runs in the second and third inning, respectively. In the second, Florida made an interesting decision to intentionally walk Drew Gilbert and load the bases for Evan Russell, who came through with an RBI single to give his team an early 1-0 lead.
In the top of the fourth, Beck crushed an RBI double to left to drive in Luc Lipcius — who led off the inning with a single — from second. Beck then scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-0.
Gilbert singled to center to score Spence from second in the seventh inning to add a key insurance run. It would prove to be the final run of the game.
SEC Title Game
Tennessee will play in its first SEC Tournament Championship Game on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
Exactly two weeks after Tennessee and Arkansas played in Knoxville and finished with fireworks between Tony Vitello and Dave Van Horn, the two will meet in the title game in Hoover, as the Hogs beat Ole Miss 3-2 to advance on Saturday.
“The bottom line is I had my mask up because we got beat and I didn't want to talk,” Vitello said of the argument with his former boss. “Coach Van Horn is a mentor for me, and he's also a gracious winner, and he just wanted to say good job, and I didn't want to chat. He was frustrated I didn't, so he made a point to say it. That's when I said something that really should be handled away from the field. So his reaction, I don't think, was out of line, and that's what kind of stirred the attention. Then I said the hell with it, might as well try and sort it out here while the emotions are going, but that's not a good idea because, again, there's emotions going. It doesn't take a genius to figure out we lost that game because they beat us. I worked under him and have learned a lot, and it's not good to be an easy loser, and he's not and I'm not, and that's the end of it.
“He's a guy, like I said, that has sent me information and congratulations and things like that. So same thing with (Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan). We talked last night on the phone. We're going to compete like crazy against each other and hate each other or whatever you want to call it for three hours, and then afterwards, I think everybody that's in this league respects what everybody's doing because it is an absolute grind.”
This marks the first time in the tournament's current format that the Vols have reached the final. UT won three consecutive tournament titles from 1993-95 when the eastern and western divisions had separate tournaments.
“We’re going to come ready to play, and we're all excited,” Spence added.
Get caught up on all of Tennessee's journey through the 2021 SEC Tournament below.
SEC Tournament Notebook: Vols fall in controversial fashion to Alabama
SEC Tournament Notebook: Vols dominate Mississippi State to avoid elimination
SEC Tournament Notebook: Vols get sweet revenge on Alabama
