Tennessee baseball's struggles of late have continued.

The Vols fell 8-1 to Auburn on Sunday to drop the series, two games to one.

In a weekend filled with weather delays, they finally got an entire game in over one day. After wrapping up the extra innings suspended from Saturday to Sunday morning (ending in a walk-off), a seven-inning game was played.

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No. 12 Tennessee (37-11, 14-10 SEC) head coach Tony Vitello wasn't there for the entirety of it, though. He was ejected in the top of the fifth inning after disagreeing with a call. He went up to every umpire afterward to tell them his displeasure.

This boiled over after he disagreed with multiple calls throughout the three days of play against the No. 10 Tigers (33-15, 13-11).

Starting the game on the mound for the Vols was A.J. Russell. As he fights back from injury, he is seemingly sticking in the third-game role as the starter. This time, he had two impressive innings of work before running into trouble in the third.

Due to three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs, he was pulled. Nate Snead entered and couldn't get out of the jam, letting the three runners score and pinning them as earned runs on Russell.

Snead got into trouble himself later, finishing with two innings pitched while allowing three runs after getting pulled with two on and no outs.

It was Brandon Arvidson replacing him who walked one and struck out another before being pulled. Replacing Arvidson after an allowed run was Brayden Krenzel. Krenzel went 0.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He was replaced by Tanner Franklin who allowed one run.

Austin Breedlove went the rest of the way to shut things down.

While the pitching staff didn't perform well, it also didn't get much run support. Cannon Peebles' solo shot in the fifth was the lone score of the game.

After neither team recorded a hit in the first, Tennessee got the first knock of the game on a hard-hit ball by Hunter Ensley in the second. However, he was doubled up after Dalton Bargo lined out. Levi Clark doubled shortly after, but was stranded.

In the third, Auburn got its first hit. And it's second. And it's third. All back-to-back-to-back to start the inning.

This loaded the bases for the Tigers with no outs. Vitello went to the bullpen at this point, bringing in Snead , who pitched the day prior heading into the suspension due to inclement weather.

However, Snead couldn't get out of it undamaged. He allowed four runs in the inning through a wild pitch, single, fielder's choice and sacrifice.

Tennessee would get runners on in the fourth, but couldn't push any home despite threatening.

In the fifth, after Snead allowed runners on the corners with no outs, Arvidson entered in the sticky situation. He walked one and struck out another before Krenzel came in. He walked two-straight to allow two runs to score.

Vitello had seen enough from the umpiring at that point, thinking a batter went around when it was called a ball and no swing. He was ejected while giving each umpire a piece of his mind.

Auburn singled afterward to score a run but the second runner attempting to score was thrown out. This made it a 7-0 game.

Tennessee got one back in the bottom of the inning. It used a Peebles solo shot to cut the lead to six with two innings to play.

Neither team got anything going in the sixth, with Franklin entering for Tennessee. In the seventh, Franklin allowed a run before being yanked for Breedlove. He shut things down from there.

The Vols got a hit-by-pitch to get a runner on but a base-running mistake resulting in a double-play ended the game.

Tennessee will now continue a long home stand. It will welcome Indiana State to town on Tuesday before playing Vanderbilt for a three-game set over the weekend. The Friday through Sunday series has start times of 5:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively.

Then, the Vols will finish out its regular season slate of home games by hosting Belmont the following Tuesday. The regular season concludes with a trip to play Arkansas from May 15-17.

Then, the SEC Tournament begins on May 20 in a new single-elimination format with the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference.

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