JOHNSON CITY — The bottom appears to have fallen out for Tennessee’s baseball team.
Troy Mendez hit a sixth-inning grand slam and East Tennessee State (13-11) rolled to a 9-3 victory over the Vols on Tuesday night at Cardinal Park before a crowd of 626.
Mendez went 3-for-5 with five RBIs, and his sixth-inning skyrocket gave ETSU an 8-2 lead.
Starting pitcher Chas Byrne (3-1) took care of the rest. Byrne, a right-handed sophomore, shut down and dominated Tennessee (11-16). Byrne struck out seven, while allowing four hits and one earned run in 6º innings.
UT dropped a three-game series to Georgia over the weekend. On Tuesday, the Vols lost sophomore first baseman Cody Hawn (.301 batting average, 11 home runs, 39 RBIs) to a “viral illness” for at least a month, according to Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh.
“We had a tremendous blow today. We probably lost our best player,” Raleigh told the Bristol Herald Courier.
Raleigh held a post-game meeting in left field with six other Vols for more than 20 minutes following the loss.
Raleigh admitted his team was likely trying to make up for the absence of Hawn, as the Vols’ hitters put too much weight on their shoulders and missed early opportunities.
“Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us, but it’s just been unbelievable the stuff that’s happened to us,” Raleigh said. “It’s like a perfect storm. It does hurt. I didn’t know it, but (Hawn’s) got numbers better than (ex-Tennessee star) Todd Helton.”
The Vols recorded just four hits Tuesday and did not score until the fifth.
Meanwhile, the Bucs hit right-handed starter Danny Wiltz hard. Wiltz allowed six hits in three innings and gave up two earned runs.
Kentrail Davis hit a two-run homer to tie the game at 2-2 in the fifth.
ETSU came right back. Bo Reeder slammed a hanging fastball from reliever Will Locante (1-1) over the right-field fence in the bottom half for a 3-2 lead.
“There’s a lot of UT fans around here,” said Byrne, a former standout at Johnson City Science Hill High School. “It’s good to show them who’s the more dominant baseball team.”
Tennessee returns to action today against Charleston Southern at 6:30 p.m. at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols then will play a three-game SEC series at Alabama starting Friday.
Tennessee's signing class for 2012
Tennessee defeats Georgia 3-2 in…
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 33
stayingorange writes:
This is becoming a train wreck. Getting Bucced Up by ETSU on Tuesday can only mean more sweeps on SEC weekends.
Capt_Winters writes:
FIRE RALEIGH. SHOULD HAVE NEVER FILED DELMONICO IF THIS IS ALL WE CAN DO. RALEIGH SUCKS A$&!!!!
MANVOL writes:
One Word: SAD....
sdbgovols writes:
I am a die hard VOL fan, went to UTK, now live in JC. I was at the game tonight, and the BUCS absolutely smoked us. ETSU has a better team and Chas Byrne blew pitches by everyone making thme look like JV players. What is going on?
vorangel writes:
Pathetic also works.
The only thing worse than seeing these guys get whipped in person is listening to Wilkerson on a long drive home.
Wilkerson makes you feel like you're playing trivial pursuit - all numbers and no life.
Who cares if a guy wears number 33 and hits from the left side and is a sophomore from Walla Walla and knocked in his 12th run with his fifth double of the season in the third.
Wilkerson actually talked this team up all winter.
I'll take Chip Kain any day.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
WOW... WOW....I was very critical of the hire at the very beginning because I thought there were much better choices out there at the time like Schlossnagle at TCU, Gilmore at Coastal Carolina, Robichaux at UL-L and Pawloski at C of C. Then Hams comes out and says we are going to go after a big name like Murphy and we hire Raleigh. Who? I decided to voice my opinion at first and then have given him a chance but this appears to be a complete disaster so far. This is getting embarassing.
WorkinLikeHeck writes:
I didn't like it either but decided to at least give him a chance. Delmonico wasn't the answer either though.
snafu14u#241639 writes:
When they start using the "perfect storm" line you know it's about to hit the fan. This was a budget hire from the very beginning and you get what you pay for. Yank him. bonzaivol
campvol#212157 writes:
Fire Raleigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time for him to go.
Hire Phil Garner
eduardo writes:
And the hits keep on coming!!!
mbearden#546949 writes:
Trying to understand this fascination with bringing in Phil Garner. Managing the majors doesn't necessarily translate into success on the college field.
I don't think Raleigh is the answer, but like WorkinLikeHeck stated, the inconsistent Delmonico wasn't either. Personally, I would like to see someone with an established track record in the college game, JMO.
Triton1 writes:
I'd take Delmonico back in a heart beat.
easttnvol21 writes:
I said several weeks ago that ETSU would hammer the Vols----the kid who blew us away last night has had a difficult time blowing anyone away. What does that tell you? Gorilla ball??? Hardly, more like nerf ball. Mike Hamilton laid an egg folks.
jdcvols#230433 writes:
Raleigh has become the worst coach in the UT system since Wade Houston. The idiot clawson is now third. Just fire this fool...
Cherokee writes:
Oh no! ANOTHER Perfect Storm! Man, are we unlucky or what? I can understand Raleigh wanting to protect his job, but this is at least the second or third time I've listened to him go on about all the "stuff" that has "happened to" this team. It's just like the guy who says "I'm not making excuses, but..."
Delmonico's time needed to be up - it was feast or famine, and more of the latter, under him. But like several of us said at the time, I DON'T understand firing RD if Raleigh was going to be the hire.
I think we got ahead of ourselves and thought we'd have no trouble finding a good coach who wanted to come to a school that has not been known for baseball.
vick3333 writes:
What a moron!....Is this guy a Fulmer protege....excuses, excuses, excuses....and no respect for Tenn baseball tradition.....Hawn is UT's best player?????this guy has ruined Kantrall Davis (and how about Lockwood). Western Carolina is not the SEC, unless of course they are playing a UT team coached by Raleigh! Bring in a top flight coach like UT deserves......
shoalcreekvol writes:
Quick..Someone give Raleigh some magic dust!!!
OrangeMan_86 writes:
You're a retard. I don't believe you're a real Vols fan. I also thought Raleigh was a bad idea but have never felt that way about Lane Kiffin. So your theory that you were right about Releigh so you'll be right about Kiffin is stupid. Go put your Gator head on and stfu.
shoalcreekvol writes:
So you would have us fire Kiffin now? Because you say it's not going to work out?
MadMax writes:
"Raleigh admitted his team was likely trying to make up for the absence of Hawn, as the Vols’ hitters put too much weight on their shoulders and missed early opportunities."
Sorry Todd, that may be a valid excuse for this game, but what about the other 15 losses?
NashvillePreds writes:
So, with Hawn, the team was a brilliant 11-15? This manager needs to go to Bowling Green with Clawson. The past two years, we lose to every school we play. Among them, Belmont, Lipscomb, ETSU, Tenn Tech....and the list goes on.
NashvillePreds writes:
Interesting your name is No_Excuses....yet here you are making excuses.
armyvol544 writes:
pitching, pitching, pitching...!!!
richvol writes:
ETSU is only 13-11...think about how bad a job this guy is doing. It's hardly even possible to comprehend how a major school like UT could be that bad.
ETSU_Vol writes:
nooo UT lost!!!....yeah ETSU won!!!.... lol. crazy but fun times
Volunatic writes:
I can't believe Mike Hamilton just fired Todd Raleigh and hired Tommy Lasorda! Crazy times in UT athletics.
Volunatic writes:
Kind of an ironic post from a guy whose posting name is "no_excuses".
Volunatic writes:
Dang-- you beat me to it.
92VOL05 writes:
We made a big mistake with this hire.... I played for Coach Delmonico. He is a good coach. I don't believe we can blame this on a playbook. I hate to see our program in this kinda trouble.
huntined#565710 writes:
Are they still Dancing in the streets in J.C.?
knoxlawvol writes:
Mrs. Raleigh make sure you cup the balls while not making any excuses. Seriously, it doesn't really matter what we think because this loser is gone at the end of the season.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
The wheels have come off.
livinloudin writes:
WOW...........Does any administration listen to the post game press conferences???? Raleigh is the most inarticulate person I have heard speak in a long time. Did this guy get a college education??
Share your thoughts
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.