Tennessee Saturday starter Chase Dollander is not on the Vols’ active roster this weekend at Florida. Blade Tidwell will make his first SEC start of the season in his place, a Tennessee spokesperson confirmed following the Vols’, 8-2, game one win.
The top-ranked Vols open up their weekend series with rival Florida in 10 minutes. The SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
Dollander was injured in the first inning of his start last Saturday against Alabama. The sophomore retired the first two batters of the game before a Zane Denton line drive struck him in the right arm and ended his outing in the middle of the first inning.
The Vols avoided the worst with the talented right-handed pitcher as Dollander has deep bone bruise in his right arm but no fracture.
The Georgia Southern transfer was “day-to-day” this week but was unlikely to be able to make his Saturday start as he recovered from the swelling and bone bruise.
Tidwell shined as the Vols’ Sunday starter as a freshman last season, but the Loretto native hasn’t thrown more than two innings in a game in 2022 after missing the first six weeks of the season due to a shoulder injury.
Tidwell has 2.70 ERA in 6.2 innings pitched this season after posting a 3.74 ERA in 98.2 innings pitched as a freshman.
Tennessee is looking for its third straight series win over Florida. Freshman Chase Burns bounced back from consecutive poor starts to help the Vols earn the game one win Friday night.
