Tennessee earned its third straight series win over rival Florida Saturday, shutting out the Gators, 3-0, behind dominant pitching.
The Vols struggled to string hits together but used a pair of long balls to improve to 36-3 (16-1 SEC).
Here’s everything you need to know from the game two victory.
Tidwell Proves Vols Have Four Strong Starters
Blade Tidwell hadn’t started an SEC game this season or thrown more than two innings in a single outing entering Saturday’s game
While his lack of innings previously pitching on the season limited his number of batters faced, the sophomore was fantastic on Saturday.
Tidwell barely broke a sweat until he was well past his previous season long outing. The sophomore retired the first 11 batters he faced and when a pair of back-to-back two-out singles posed trouble in the fourth, Tidwell worked back from a 3-0 count to catch Florida’s BT Riopelle looking to end the inning.
The right-hander allowed just three baserunners while striking out five in 4.2 innings of work.
That fastball was dynamic for the Loretto, Tennessee native and showed why the sophomore entered the season as a projected top 20 pick in this summer’s MLB Draft.
Tidwell’s heater sat 96-98 and touched 99 mph in the Vols’ win. The 6-foot-3 right-handers slider wasn’t as sharp as it could have been, but was effective enough to Tidwell to dominate with his heater.
While we were pretty confident this was the case, Tidwell’s first SEC start proved it: the Vols have four really good starting pitchers. How Tony Vitello handles the rotation when Dollander returns from injury will be interesting to see, but the Vols will have no shortage of capable starters when postseason play comes around.
Pair Of Lefty Long Balls End The Pitcher’s Duel
Blade Tidwell was great and Tennessee needed it because unlike Friday night, the Vols’ offense didn’t start like gangbusters.
Florida starter Brandon Sproat was strong in his usual Saturday starter role. The Vols earned a few early baserunners but the sophomore used double plays in the first and third inning to end threats as well as stranding a pair of runners in the second.
The Florida native filled the strike zone with his upper 90s fastball and solid offspeed repertoire and turned game two into a true pitcher’s duel.
Tennessee struggled to strand together hits, but did break through with a pair of long balls that gave them a late inning lead.
Luc Lipcius led off the fifth inning with a line drive home run to right field and Drew Gilbert gave the Vols a little breathing room an inning later, following a Jordan Beck leadoff single with a long home run to right field.
Defensive Vols
Tennessee played some fantastic defense behind its pitching staff on Saturday night.
That was highlighted most by second baseman Joel Ortega who made a SportsCenter Top 10 diving catch to leadoff the fourth inning.
JO is flashing the leather today!
📺 https://t.co/6A7ZCJPtkh#GBO // #OTH // #BeatUF pic.twitter.com/Z2vo7iYcu1
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) April 23, 2022
That was the best of a handful of nice defensive plays for Ortega on the evening. The second baseman struggled with some defensive miscues early in SEC play, but has been fantastic the past month.
Kyle Booker earned a rare start Saturday and made a nice diving catch with a runner on-base with one-out in the sixth inning.
Camden Sewell earned the first out of that inning by picking a Florida runner off at first base.
Couple those handful of impressive plays with the consistency — no errors — and you had a big time defensive performance from Tennessee. In a low scoring game, that made a sizable difference.
Second Consecutive Strong Showing For Sewell
The newcomers that start for Tennessee on the weekend have earned most the shine this season, but senior Camden Sewell is extremely talented and was in contention to earn a starting spot before settling into his familiar long relief role.
Sewell wasn’t bad, but inconsistent to open conference play, struggling in two of his first four outings.
The Cleveland, Tennessee native earned his second straight fantastic long relief outing. The senior allowed two earned runs in 4.1 innings of relief while dealing with a banged up foot last week against Alabama.
He one upped his performance from a week ago, taking the ball from Tidwell with two outs in the fifth and going the distance for UT.
Sewell’s command wasn’t fantastic as he walked a batter and hit two others, but he was calm and steady on the mound. The senior — who grew up a Florida fan — never allowed a runner to reach scoring position.
Sewell’s fantastic outing yielded a final line of 4.1 innings pitched, one hit, zero earned runs, one walk and three strikeouts.
We’ve seen Sewell be fantastic in long outings a handful of times in his career, but Saturday’s never allowed Florida to gain any momentum.
As for those few inconsistent outings?
Sewell seems back to his normal self after dominating the Gators.
Final Numbers
Up Next
Tennessee looks for the series sweep at noon ET Sunday. The SEC Network+ will stream the game.
