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Tennessee overcomes home run controversy, makes Volunteers baseball history

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•04/01/22
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(Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

The top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers baseball team experienced a wild and wacky Friday night in Nashville, Tennessee against the Vanderbilt Commodores, but they managed to pull out a 6-2 win. In the first inning, Tennessee’s Jordan Beck blasted a home run over the wall, but then after he trotted the bases and touched home plate, umpires began discussing his bat, which was deemed illegal due to not having a sticker on it. Per Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello, the sticker came off during batting practice.

Tennessee fought its way through the adversity and was still able to pull out their 17th straight win on the season. The winning streak is the longest in Volunteers’ baseball history. Check out the graphic below.

With the win, the Volunteers moved to 25-1 overall and 7-0 in SEC play on their 2021-2022 season. During the game, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello hilariously voiced his displeasure with the illegal bat ruling with ESPN’s announcers. “I guess the sticker came off during BP (batting practice),” Vitello said. “There was no sticker on the bat. We’ve got to have a sticker. Actually, since I’ve learned that, we’ve got a few bats that it’s somehow convenient when the stickers have come off. So, I dunno. I don’t even know that Jordan Beck should be at the University of Tennessee. Forged his transcript. He’s actually a 35-year old man named Mike Honcho. So he just shows up to practice everyday.”

Tennessee has been posting staggering statistics throughout the 2021-2022 season and they’ve been dominating like the No.1 team in the land should. Through March 30th, they currently lead the nation in: batting average (.338), ERA (1.86), and home runs (66). The next closest team to them in home runs are the Mercer Bears with 50. Tennessee also has drilled 153 extra base hits this year, along with a .682 slugging percentage thus far. It’s been a historic season already for the Volunteers. Fans are hoping the team can continue to remain hot and close the deal in a few months at the College World Series in Omaha.

Tennessee is set to take on Vanderbilt on Saturday and Sunday to finish off the series this weekend.