Kirby Connell turned toward his outfield and howled.

The left-handed relief pitcher, known just as much for his mustache, struck out his second batter in two innings on Saturday and knew that Tennessee baseball not only won a game against Missouri. The Vols pulled off the always challenging SEC series sweep.

No. 3 Tennessee (37-7, 15-6 SEC) beat Missouri 10-1 on Thursday and won 3-2 both on Friday and Saturday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

Last year, Tennessee was swept by Missouri (19-26, 6-15). 

The Vols have won seven games in a row.

Here are the takeaways from the three-game series:

SEC series sweep

It was the second series sweep against an SEC opponent this season. Their first was at home against LSU on April 12-14. 

“A sweep is nice, it’s very difficult to get,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said. “But when we do play these series our guys know the task at hand: We’re trying to get to two wins before the other team.” 

Dean Curley, who had two RBIs on Saturday, said that winning three straight is “awesome” and that it is the result of the hard work from practice during the week. 

The Vols had three SEC sweeps last season. 

Winning ‘pretty’ and ‘ugly’

The Vols won the series opener with a season-high tying six home runs.

In the next two victories, Tennessee did not hit a single home run and its identical one-run wins were largely on the backs of its defense. Starting pitcher Drew Beam (6-1) allowed six hits and two hits and struck out eight in 7.1 innings on Friday.

Vitello said that the Vols are proving they can pick up wins when the runs aren’t as easy to come by and it’s valuable experience to have before the postseason starts. 

Before the series, Tennessee had only won three games in which it scored three or fewer runs.

“You don’t have to win pretty but you just got to win ugly,” Vitello said on Friday. “The team has high ambitions and we’re just looking to become the best versions of ourselves. And in pursuit of doing that, we kind of opened up this Rolodex of ways that we can win and people that we can with.”

Vitello admitted that the defense might be slightly underrated as the bullpen has continued to improve from the start of the season.  

“We didn’t feel like defense and pitching, we’re here to brag about it even though we want that to be our strength,” Vitello said. “(Pitching) coach (Frank) Anderson has done such a good job with those pitchers it has become a strength.”

Blake Burke’s hitting streak ends 

Blake Burke’s school record for consecutive games with a hit ended at 31 on Thursday. 

The junior first baseman, who is second in home runs for a career at Tennessee with 44, also didn’t register a hit on Friday. It was the first time this year that Burke has gone without a hit in back-to-back games. He was 1-for-4 on Saturday.

VOLS HOME RUN LEADERS: Inside Blake Burke and Christian Moore’s homer-bashing, record-trading chase for Tennessee baseball

Vitello admitted that he didn’t closely monitor the streak and implied that it’s possibly a positive that it’s over. 

He said that he’s sure that Burke and other players aren’t as concerned with individual records as they tell him they want to win as a team.

“I’ll take Blake Burke 0-for-4 or 5-for-5 any day of the week and he’s kind of already established his status as a Vol. He’s right up there with anyone … J.P. (Arencibia), Todd (Helton), he’s a Vol legend.”

Toyloy Brown III is a Knox News sports reporter. Email toyloy.brown@knoxnews.com. On X, formerly Twitter, @TJ3rd_.