Nichols: In Talent and Temperament, Tennessee Just Keeps ‘Whistling’ Along

The Vanderbilt Whistler(s) is — or are — one of the most hated personalities in college baseball.

Wherever the Commodores go, the Whistler’s chirping follows.

But so does the loathing, as fans throughout the country lament a familiar sound that pierces the air from Nashville to Omaha before exiting through televisions and radios across the nation.

To most baseball fans, the Whistler is annoying. Obnoxious. Unlikeable.

But, if you add “talented” to those other adjectives, wouldn’t plenty of those people say the same about Tony Vitello’s bold and boisterous Tennessee team?

One week after sweeping then-No. 1 Ole Miss in Oxford, top-ranked UT traveled to Nashville — where it had not won a series since 2009 — and swept No. 9 Vanderbilt for the first time since the same season.

Unlike the series in Oxford, which featured a one-run game on Sunday, Tennessee (27-1, 9-0 SEC) kept the Commodores at arm’s length with wins of 6-2, 5-2 and 5-0.

In other words, the Vols pinned Tim Corbin’s team to its own turf, shined those brand-new stadium lights into Vanderbilt’s collective eyes and completed not just a Tennessee baseball sweep, but the first Tennessee athletics sweep of Vanderbilt for the first time ever.

Considering that Vandy has won two College World Series titles since that last sweep 13 years ago, and that UT this weekend swept a Top-10 historic program led by one of the most respected coaches in college baseball history, this was no mere beating of “little brother” by “big brother.”

No, this was big brother finding that one thing that little brother can do better — and then beating little brother over the head with the personality to match.

And, with arguably its two hardest series of the season now in the rear view, this Tennessee team may very well keep rolling and whistling for as long as it pleases.

Take, for example, the 22 hits this weekend — which would have been 23 without the Jordan Beck bat issue on Friday — and sprinkle a bit of “Mike Honcho” swagger over the top.

“I would say that other ball I hit into the gap was hit pretty well, and that was with a different bat,” Beck said after the Vols’ Friday win, which marked the most consecutive victories in program history to that point. “The bats don’t matter. You can give us wood bats. We’re going to keep doing it.”

Take, for example, Tennessee’s dominant starting pitchers — two bookending, pro-level 19-year-olds in Chase Burns and Drew Beam (who threw his first complete game Sunday, by the way), SEC strikeout leader Chase Dollander (he’s now at 60 and counting), and a veteran-led bullpen that boasts quite literally the most exciting arm in college baseball history.

Dollander and Beam were especially great this weekend. Beam shut out the Commodores’ lineup, while Dollander tossed eight innings with two hits allowed — a controlled outing that saw the Georgia Southern transfer flash just a bit of personality as he hopped back to the dugout on Saturday.

The pitching details may have been a bit into the weeds from the main point of this column, though Dollander’s restraint is the perfect segue to the third and final point: with a personality this loud, what can’t these Vols do?

Short answer: make everyone like them. Sound familiar?

Sure, Vitello’s hilarious quote relating Jordan Beck to Mike Honcho has already generated buzz and shirts and conversations across the country, and it appears to have made him more endearing to fans from coast to coast.

It likely doesn’t mean diddly, though, to any of the teams who still have to face these volatile Vols — who show a bit less restraint most of the time than Dollander did Saturday.

From Vitello going toe-to-toe with umpires after Beck’s bat issue, to Luc Lipcius sarcastically examining his own bat after lifting a two-run bomb, to the home run clothing items that barely need mentioning at this point, this team has gone far beyond embracing the villainous nature Vitello has ingrained.

"It was just more fuel to the fire," said Beck of the bat incident. "I can go ahead and tell you we probably don’t like this team very much.“

The same can be said for Vanderbilt — and a lot of other teams — toward Tennessee.

The key difference? The Vols may be even more respected than they are disliked — a sentiment quietly reflected by Vanderbilt’s crowd, including the Whistler, as the chirping slowly died on Sunday in Nashville.

“Yeah,” said Drew Gilbert on Sunday. “When you step on someone’s throat, they tend to quiet down a little bit.”