Rucker: Vols’ lineup, crowd a devastating duo
Indiana baseball coach Jeff Mercer didn’t think the Lindsey Nelson Stadium crowd contributed to the Hoosiers’ 12-6 loss to top-ranked Tennessee in a Saturday night NCAA Tournament game in Knoxville. These eyes saw and these ears heard a different story.
Not a huge thing, is it? Move on. Proceed to the next one and continue.
Though technically Foley did that, he committed his biggest error of the evening in the process. Balking Amick to second base, he lost his nerve.
Then Foley fell behind in the count to Vols sophomore left fielder Dylan Dreiling, and he stepped off the mound late in the pitch clock and claimed a malfunction in his PitchCom device — which, in fairness, does happen, but it almost always seems to happen in moments where pitchers need to calm themselves. Such a coincidence, that.
Both the balk and the PitchCom swap brought an eruption from Tennessee’s capacity crowd — especially the student section.
Foley got arguably a bit fortunate moments later, getting Dreiling to just get under the ball and fly out, rather than send the ball over the right center field wall for a two-run home run. The pitcher had done his job, but it was a pyrrhic victory. He’d started to sweat, and you can’t let bullies see you sweat. Tennessee fans knew beyond any doubt that it had rattled Foley, and that they could continue rattling him and break him.
The fans were right. They and Tennessee’s lineup broke Foley, and a 9-0 lead in the top of the third was more than the Vols would need in a 12-6 win that booked them a berth in the championship round of the NCAA Tournament’s Knoxville Regional.
A four-spot in the second and a five-spot in the third chased Foley from the game after just 2.1 innings. In that time, he allowed eight earned runs on just four hits … but also seven walks and one hit batter. Two of the four hits he allowed were home runs — two-run shots by freshman shortstop Dean Curley and then Moore in the second inning.
Remember Moore’s first at-bat? So did Moore. Foley was wobbling a bit the second time he faced Moore, and the Beast of Brooklyn didn’t delay his attack. He sent a first-pitch fastball well beyond the right field wall to give the Vols a 4-0 lead. Moore’s 29th blast of the season was a 107-mph rocket that traveled 400 feet to the opposite field despite a low 24.2-degree launch angle.
Hunter Ensley, the junior center fielder for the Vols, was walked on five pitches by Foley to start that inning. Curley’s home run then gave Ensley a score. With two outs, Foley then singled to senior catcher Cal Stark. Moore went yard on the following pitch, and Stark jogged home. Four runs on the board were directly caused by two free bags.
Right fielder Kavares Tears, a sophomore from Tennessee, earned a walk to begin the top of the third. Curley singled, and Stark got another free pass after walking to load the bases. With Tennessee ahead 5-0 after Foley walked Moore, the big pitcher’s night was over.
Foley allowed eight free passes, and all but one of those freebies came around and scored. With every mistake Foley made, the crowd got louder. When Indiana hustled several relievers into the bullpen, they made sure Foley knew.
A night that began with so much promise for a pitcher with so much talent ended the way things often end for even the most talented opposing pitchers in this park. It ended badly for that pitcher, and for his team.
The combination of Tennessee’s lineup and its crowd are absolutely devastating, and Vols coach Tony Vitello made sure to mention those fans in his postgame presser.
“It was pretty cool to see the crowd interfering with the PitchCom and then getting excited and then certainly kind of putting pressure on the pitcher,” Vitello said. “Again, Foley’s got literally Big League stuff, and our guys made it tough on him, but I think they got kind of a John Stockton assist there from the crowd.”
Coach Jeff Mercer of Indiana adopted a more cautious approach, which was understandable for a man coaching young men who had just failed in a challenging circumstance and needed to bounce back quickly to prolong their season. He claimed that Foley and the other Hoosiers just failed to execute and that he didn’t believe they were rattled.
He was correct that his teammates failed to perform. I’m not sure if his explanation was correct.
Looking at it this way, it appeared as though the Hoosiers, and Foley in particular, were affected by the audience.
Mercer took a different stance. At least that was what he said.
“Obviously Tennessee is a great team. They’re No. 1 for a reason,” Mercer said. “The difference really is the free bases on our part, and we left guys on bases offensively, so the game is decided in that way. Most typical games are. This is not an abstract thought by any stretch. You left guys on base, and obviously on the mound they had too many free bases. Give them credit. They obviously forced the issue and forced our hand in that regard. They didn’t expand and chase and got into good counts and did damage when they got there. Really the difference in the game kind of on both sides of the ball, obviously, free bases from the pitching staff and then We left too many guys on base offensively.
“I don’t know that the noise necessarily is the precursor to those things.”
Mercer has a deeper understanding of his team than reporters covering it, and he certainly has a deeper understanding of his squad than reporters covering an opponent. However, on Saturday night, these ears heard what these eyes heard and these eyes saw.
The Hoosiers have a difficult task ahead of them. Any club would find it difficult to take against the Vols at their own stadium. Even if you give it your all, you could still lose. However, the crowd certainly felt like a factor on Saturday night, since it didn’t feel like Indiana was playing at its best.
“I thought he held his composure fine,” Mercer said of Foley. “I thought he was competitive. … Obviously, they’re very talented, extremely talented. Hit the ball really hard, consistent to the big part of the field. They get some Like skilled hitters, they pull balls up to their pull side on off-speed pitches. They deserve all the praise; great offense. There’s a reason they are [great]. It wasn’t that Connor wasn’t a competitor. I didn’t believe he was accelerated in any way. He simply needs to keep working at it and improving because you’re playing against a fantastic squad, and they’ll punish you for your errors.
“At times, you can be talented and you can overwhelm somebody with stuff and velocity, and you’re just not gonna do that with a team like this.”
Not in front of this throng, either.