Tennessee baseball head coach Dave SerranoKNOXVILLE -- Tennessee's baseball team appeared on its way to a crucial series-clinching win entering Sunday afternoon's fifth inning.
The Volunteers ran out of arms and find themselves still scraping for a shot at the postseason.
Visiting Vanderbilt scored nine unanswered runs over the last five innings to take the rubber game of the series.
"I said to the team that the first three innings were probably the proudest I have been of them all year," UT first-year coach Dave Serrano said. "For the first time in a while they actually went for something. They went to get it on their own, but the sad fact is that it's a nine-inning baseball game.
"I don't know where the momentum changed or the mentality changed or if it was 6-3 and we thought we had it in the bag, but the wheels fell off."
After a rousing Friday-night win, the Vols (23-24, 8-16 SEC) missed on two chances to creep closer to the 10th and final spot in the SEC tournament later this month. UT hasn't been there since 2007, and after Georgia finished a three-game sweep of Auburn on Sunday in Athens, the Vols are two games back of the Tigers with two weekends left in the season.
Starter Nick Williams tossed 8 2/3 innings and struck out eight Commodores in Friday's 8-2 win. Drew Steckenrider smashed four doubles and drove in four runs. The Vols scored three runs each in the fifth and sixth innings.
Vanderbilt (23-24, 11-13) bounced back on Saturday by breaking open a 2-2 tie with four runs in the fifth and sixth frames. Jack Lupo delivered a two-run double that made it 5-2 in the sixth. Will Maddox, UT's freshman leadoff hitter, hit his third career home run.
UT took control early on Sunday when Chris Fritts followed Steckenrider's RBI double with a two-run double of his own, but the Vols couldn't get out of their own way late. Starter Dalton Saberhagen, the son of former Major League veteran Bret, and Steckenrider combined to walk nine batters. Three errors, one hit batter and three wild pitches didn't help matters, as Vanderbilt outhit UT 13-12 and scored three unearned runs.
"Nothing is dead in the water, and until they tell us that we're eliminated," Serrano said, "that is what I'm going to believe. I said to the team before the series started to just play and let the results take care of themselves. Let's play so that no matter what, we can walk away and be proud of something."
The Vols play at Memphis on Wednesday before a three-game road series at Ole Miss. UT's final series is against Arkansas in Knoxville. Auburn closes with Arkansas and Florida.