Tony Vitello explains Tennessee's struggles against Nate Ackenhausen

Tennessee‘s memorable season came to an end on Tuesday night as they couldn’t avoid elimination for a second time at the College World Series. The Vols fell to LSU 5-0, getting shut out for the first time since their SEC Tournament loss versus Texas A&M in May.

Tigers left-handed pitcher Nate Ackenhausen was a big reason for the shutout behind a career performance, and after the game, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello explained why he was so successful.

“His stuff has always been difficult to hit, he’s not on my team so I’m going off a little bit of video, little bit of research,” Vitello admitted. “Where it’s kind of gone awry for him is with command, and he had excellent command at the start of the game.”

Ackenhausen has been effective for the Tigers on the mound before, but not like he was on Tuesday night, pitching a career-high six innings in his first-ever start for the LSU on a massive stage facing elimination in Omaha.

“And as the game waned on a little bit, there were some mistakes he made out of the zone, whether it be hit by pitch or something like that, but then he kept his composure and regathered and did well. And then it takes two to tango, like I said, we didn’t capitalize on mistakes as well as they did,” Vitello said.

Ackenhausen accidentally hit three batters on Tuesday but walked none of them, allowing just four hits on the evening and recording a season-high seven punch outs versus the Vols.

There’s no question that the lefty was effective throughout the night, despite Tennessee somewhat expecting what was coming according to Vitello.

“We kind of had it down, he got in on lefties, and then got righties to kind of over swing a little bit so it kind of depends on which side of the deal you’re talking there,” Vitello said. “You can look at game plan or you can just look at a guy who had a good opportunity and really took advantage of it. Wasn’t gonna be an easy day to score runs and nothing to show for it.”

Even when Ackenhausen’s day was done, another left-hander Riley Cooper gave the Volunteers problems, recording his second save of the season by allowing no runs and just two hits in the final three innings of the game.

The Volunteers have dug themselves into their fair share of holes throughout the postseason and been able to climb out of them, but not this time, as their luck ran out in Omaha and they couldn’t break the offensive seal.

“And for our team a lot of times when it was tough out of the gate we just needed one thing to happen then it kind of came, not necessarily like an avalanche, and who knows maybe we get that one little moment things are different but we did not,” Vitello concluded.

Tennessee’s season may be over, but not LSU’s, as they face elimination and Wake Forest again on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET in a game airing on ESPN.