Tennessee players sat in the locker room amidst a four-game losing skid in mid April doing simple math.
“I don’t want you to hear this, but I’ll say it anyway,” utility man Jared Dickey said Thursday. “We were kind of sitting in the locker room and looking at each other like: We’re 5-10 in the SEC. And that was pretty much all that we said. We just knew something had to flip.”
Simply put, Tennessee’s back was against the wall. The Vols had to crawl out of a hole just to make the SEC Tournament, let alone the NCAA Tournament.
“I think if I had to put one word for honestly the first two months (of the season) was just frustration,” associate head coach Josh Elander said.
“We’re sitting there, I remember it was me, Camden, some other guys, Jared, Halvy and we’re like we’re 5-10. We’re 5-10 in the SEC,” Griffin Merritt told RTI Thursday. “We know we are not in a good spot. We know we have to at least get to 13 wins to get into the postseason and then at that point we’re probably going to need to win the SEC Tournament to make a regional.”
The schedule didn’t get any easier— at least immediately. After three straight series against future national seeds LSU, Florida and Arkansas, instate rival Vanderbilt traveled to Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Commodores were 13-2 in conference play and sat atop the SEC standings with plenty of revenge on their mind after Tennessee won all four meetings the season before.
“For eight innings of that Vanderbilt game it looked like it was, man, it might not turn around,” Merritt said. “Or it will and it’ll be too late.”
Tennessee entered the ninth inning trailing 3-1, failing to find a clutch hit a weekend after its situational hitting was dreadful at Arkansas.
The Vols couldn’t get a hit with a runner on-base so they came back without one. Designated hitter Kavares Tears led off the ninth with a solo home run. Three at-bats later with Tennessee down to its last out, freshman Dylan Dreiling took a breaking ball at his shins deep to right field for a pinch hit, game tying home run.
In case you missed it, Hays High product Dylan Dreiling showed the clutch gene last night for Tennessee. Here is his pinch-hit, game-tying, two-out home run to force extras against Vanderbilt: @DylanDreiling1 @HaysHighAD @CatchItKansas pic.twitter.com/MWn3LW8O1B
— Tejay Cleland (@KWCHTejay) April 22, 2023
“That’s the beautiful thing about baseball,” Elander said. “The whole thing can change with one swing.”
Making his second relief appearance of the season, Chase Burns dominated in a three inning outing before Merritt played the hero, hitting a walk off home run to leadoff the bottom of the 12th inning.
“After that Friday night Vanderbilt game, I think everything really did change,” Merritt said. “It changed. It brought everybody back.”
Griffin Merritt with a 💣. Tennessee hits the walk-off HR to defeat Vanderbilt 4-3.
Unreal. 4 HR’s for Vols tonight off really good Vandy pitching.
Round 2 on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/XC4zHWzl1g
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) April 22, 2023
The series opening win over Vanderbilt flipped a switch inside this Tennessee team. They bombarded the Commodores in a 17-1 run-rule victory the following day and coasted to a 10-5 Sunday win to complete the series sweep.
The week prior to the Vanderbilt series, Tennessee’s coaches — chief amongst them strength coach Quentin Eberhardt — got onto the team for the way they were playing and the lack of togetherness within the squad that included an abundance of newcomers.
“In this program this is not okay anymore,” Elander said of the struggles the first half of SEC play. “What we had done to that point. Regardless of expectations or what other people think or anyone says there’s a standard when you put on that T on your chest. I think it was just a commitment to that. A good look in the mirror and finally guys saying, you know what? We have to be better as a group and kind of taking personal responsibility for each individually to make sure the sum of the parts was better than it had been.”
The combination of the week leading up to the Vanderbilt series and the injection of energy that the series opening win provided made baseball fun again for the Vols. It helped Tennessee’s players truly become teammates.
“At the end of the day the talent and the depth was always in the locker room,” Merritt said. “We were just missing the camaraderie and the team atmosphere— really just the love for each other was not there.”
Tennessee’s success continued past the Vanderbilt series. The Vols got to 11 SEC wins with a sweep over Mississippi State the following weekend, they picked up one win at Georgia before winning two out of three over Kentucky to get to 14 wins, safely putting them in the SEC Tournament.
Tennessee got over the road hurdle the next week, winning two out of three at South Carolina to end the regular season. The series victory pushed Tennessee to 16-14 in SEC play and firmly entrenched its spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“We did it,” Merritt said. “We crawled out of that damn hole.”
Tennessee opens up play at the College World Series Saturday night against LSU after gutsy regional and super regional victories on the road. It’s unlikely either happens without the late game heroics from a pair of outfielders (Dreiling and Tears) who have two combined at-bats in the NCAA Tournament, or the confidence and camaraderie the series opening win over Vanderbilt gave the team.
It was a season changing victory and one that those inside the program will remember for a long time.
“Without a doubt, we look back and that’s a night that wasn’t only a big night for our season but I think just a big night for our program in general,” Elander said.
