SEC releases statement on Tennessee Volunteers home run controversy

The biggest college baseball series of the weekend is taking place in Nashville, with two top-five in-state rivals battling within the SEC. The Vanderbilt Commodores are playing host to the Tennessee Volunteers, where controversy has already struck in the first inning of the first game.

Tennessee’s Jordan Beck hit a home run in the first inning but after he hit home plate, was ruled out for using an illegal bat. The SEC released a statement on the incident soon thereafter, explaining the sticker on the bat was updated from the Volunteers’ midweek matchup.

“In pre-series bat testing, a sticker with the logo of the opposing team is placed on legal bats,” the statement read. “There was a sticker on the bat in question, but it was not an appropriate sticker on the bat. It was a sticker from a midweek game.”

During the game, Tennessee manager Tony Vitello was interviewed and spoke about the incident. He said the sticker must have come off during batting practice because there was no sticker when he saw that bat. Vitello even threw around a couple of jokes about Beck.

“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 every day….”

Tennessee Volunteers have been having an unreal season

Vitello has the Volunteers ranked as the No. 1 team in America and they’ve been playing like it. Tennessee currently owns a 24-1 overall record and their offensive stats through those 25 games are staggering. The Volunteers are averaging .338, they’ve scored 277 runs, hit 66 home runs, 153 extra-base hits, and have a slugging percentage of .682. They lead the nation in home runs–the next closest team to them are the Mercer Bears with 50 home runs.

Tennessee is currently 6-0 in SEC play and they appear to be well on their way to 7-0 after Friday night. The Volunteers have throttled a number of their opponents by double digits this season and they look like they are poised to contend for the national title in Omaha at the end of the season. Tennessee defeated Iona 27-1 and then in the next game defeated them 29-0. Their only loss came on March 4, when they lost to the Texas Longhorns 7-2.

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

On3’s Wade Hampton Peery contributed to this report