Vanderbilt baseball crushes No. 1 seed Tennessee 13-4 in SEC tournament

HOOVER, Ala. — After snapping a nine-game losing streak to Tennessee earlier this season, Vanderbilt baseball now has a winning streak of its own.

The Commodores (37-20) beat the Vols in the third game of the teams' series two weeks ago. Then, eighth-seeded Vanderbilt beat top-seeded Tennessee (46-11) again, 13-4, in its second game of the SEC tournament on Wednesday to advance into the winner's bracket of the double-elimination segment.

Alan Espinal hit two home runs and Jonathan Vastine hit another as the Commodores' offense was relentless, putting up 15 total hits. Braden Holcomb and RJ Austin had three hits apiece.

Vanderbilt has been on the NCAA tournament bubble after finishing 13-17 in the SEC. The Commodores solidified their position with a win over No. 9 seed Florida on Tuesday, but beating the Vols makes it all but certain that Vanderbilt will earn an at-large berth.

The Commodores will face either Mississippi State or Texas A&M on Thursday (8 p.m., SEC Network) for a spot in the tournament semifinal on Saturday. The loser of that game will face the winner of Thursday's elimination game between Arkansas and Kentucky on Friday.

Devin Futrell's pitching performance for Vanderbilt baseball

Getting the starting nod on three days' rest after throwing 61 pitches in relief against Kentucky last Saturday, Devin Futrell was solid for his first 3⅔ innings. He started to tire a bit after that, though, giving up a single, walk and a three-run home run to Reese Chapman.

Overall, he gave up four runs in four innings with two walks and four strikeouts.

In the third game of Vanderbilt's series against the Vols, Futrell earned his first career save by helping to preserve a 3-0 lead.

On Wednesday, Luke Guth relieved Futrell and pitched one scoreless inning but walked two batters. Miller Green entered in the sixth inning and held Tennessee scoreless for the final four innings of the game to earn the win. He struck out four.

COACHING SALARIES SEC baseball coaching salaries 2024: How much each coach is paid

Alan Espinal leads Vanderbilt's offense against Tennessee Vols

After Tennessee scored the first run of the game in the second inning, Vanderbilt came back with five runs in the third. After a leadoff strikeout, Troy LaNeve walked and Calvin Hewett doubled. One run came home on a wild pitch and Davis Diaz and RJ Austin came up with back-to-back singles, the former of which drove in another run.

But it was Alan Espinal who had the biggest hit of the game of the Commodores as he blasted a three-run home run to right-center field.

Vanderbilt scored a run apiece in the fourth and fifth inning, the former coming on an RBI single by Calvin Hewett and the latter an RBI groundout by Colin Barczi.

Espinal it his second home run of the game, a two-run shot in the seventh inning. Jonathan Vastine hit a three-run homer, his 10th of the season, in the eighth inning and Colin Barczi added a solo shot for his first career home run in the ninth.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt baseball crushes top-seeded Tennessee in SEC Tournament