First, there was an hour-and-a-half long team meeting in right field. Players listened. Coaches yelled.

After that marathon session finally broke up, it didn't take long to find the University of Tennessee baseball players group en masse for a team jog out of Lindsey Nelson Stadium in workout clothes.

It wasn't just the 5-3 loss to Belmont that irked the UT coaching staff on Wednesday. It was a losing streak that stands at six games. It was another mid-week loss to an in-state team.

Tennessee head coach Todd Raleigh, pitching coach Fred Corral and assistant coach Bradley LeCroy each took turns making it clear to the Vols "pride in the Tennessee uniform" should be paramount right now.

"The soul-searching meeting, if you want to take anything out of it, is our standards are high because we're at the University of Tennessee," Corral said. "You've got to take pride in the fact you're wearing the Tennessee name on the front.

"It's just a matter getting these young men to compete harder and want it. The urgency has to be there."

It wasn't there against Belmont (19-28).

Tennessee (25-24) is 2-9 against in-state teams, including losses to ETSU (twice), Tennessee Tech, MTSU, Lipscomb and Vanderbilt (three times last weekend).

It's a painful pill for coaches and players to swallow despite the fact this Tennessee team - picked to finish last in the SEC - is still very much alive in the race for an SEC tournament berth with two weekend series remaining.

"It's frustrating and we're just trying to weather the storm the best we can," Raleigh said. "We're not going to quit. We're going to keep going. That's all I know how to do.

"I don't have a magic wand or anything to wave. We just have to go out and compete to the very end."

Since taking two of three from Alabama in mid-April, the Vols are 3-11 and struggling to rediscover early momentum.

"Obviously there are some things we have to deal with and some are going to take time and some are quicker than others," Raleigh said. "It is what it is right now. I think if it was perfect, I wouldn't have been here to begin with.

"But I'm responsible for this team and we're not playing as well as we should be right now. We're not playing with enough fire. That's all there is to it."

The Bruins showed all the early fire. They jumped out to a 4-0 lead on an RBI double by Nate Woods (4-for-4) in the fourth off UT starter Steve Crnkovich (5-6) and a three-run homer from Matt Zeblo in the sixth off reliever Joey Rosas.

UT rallied with three runs in the bottom of the sixth as Kentrail Davis hit a leadoff homer to left.

The Vols added two more runs on a Cody Brown RBI and a Tanner Moore sacrifice fly, but UT left the bases loaded and managed just two more base runners the final three innings.

"How did it become acceptable for us to lose in our home?" Raleigh said. "How is it that easy?

"If it hurt that much last week and the week before ... it couldn't have hurt that much because we keep repeating it."

Recruiting Ppromise: Raleigh admitted the losses to in-state teams don't help recruiting, but he made a bold promise.

"If you grow up and you bleed a little orange, I think you're going to lay it on the line a little more," he said. "That's going to be my focus.

"We're going to lock the borders up, I'll tell you that right now. We already have. In '09, we're going to lock this thing up. I don't have any doubt about that."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.