The good thing if you are Tennessee baseball right now is that you just swept Texas A&M to get back to .500 (3-3) in SEC play.
The bad thing is that the schedule over the next four weekends is @ No. 1 LSU, vs. No. 3 Florida, @ No. 5 Arkansas and vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt.
Tennessee is heading into the heart of SEC play, and it’s not going to be easy. Fortunately for Tennessee, the Vols are mostly healthy minus two players: Kavares Tears and Wyatt Evans.
We have not seen Evans all season as he continues to work back from arm soreness, and Tears suffered what seemed to be a hamstring injury Friday against the Aggies.
Tears was clearly favoring the back of his right leg running to first-base after hitting a leadoff single in the eighth inning Friday. Kyle Booker then came in to pinch-run for him, and Tears did not make another appearance in the series.
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Tears has been a key player for Tennessee over the past two weeks, starting eight games in a nine-game stretch until his injury. In those eight games, Tears has gone 8-19 at the plate with five RBI, including three on Friday, three extra-base hits, and a home run.
Entering the gauntlet that is Tennessee’s upcoming stretch, the Vols will certainly want to have Tears back ready to go. And head coach Tony Vitello expects him back ‘sooner rather than later.’
“KT (Tears) just been doing rehab in the training room instead of taking extra swings or running around out there,” Vitello said Sunday. “Just getting that thing where he can come back as quick as possible. I think it’ll be sooner than later, but that’s also one of those things where we don’t want to go two steps forward, one step back.”
Avoiding going ‘two steps forward and one step back’ has been a common theme from Vitello in his career at Tennessee, and it’s the similar approach he has taken with Camden Sewell and Wyatt Evans this season.
Sewell has made a handful of appearances so far in 2023, with the first coming in Tennessee’s Saturday win over Morehead State two weeks ago.
As for Evans, the sophomore lefty is still yet to see action, but Vitello did provide an update on his progress.
“Wyatt, tomorrow, will get on the mound and have a feel where he’s at,” Vitello said.
Tears is likely closer to returning to action than Evans, though we will see if the power-hitting outfielder can return to the field ahead of or during Tennessee’s series against the number one team in the country next weekend.
