Tennessee baseball is on the road again, heading to Fayetteville for its weekend series at No. 5 Arkansas starting Friday night.
The Vols have lost two consecutive series against top five opponents but have won their last two games, taking the series finale against Florida before knocking off Eastern Kentucky in the midweek. Arkansas has won three of four SEC series and has lost just two home games all season.
Here’s everything you need to know about the weekend series between Tennessee and Arkansas.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Walking Into A Hornet’s Nest At Arkansas
Game Times — No. 16 Tennessee (23-10, 5-7 SEC) at No. 5 Arkansas (26-7, 8-4 SEC)
Location: Baum-Walker Stadium
Game One (Friday): 8 p.m. ET
Game Two (Saturday): 7 p.m. ET
Game Three (Sunday): 2 p.m. ET
How To Watch
Game One: SEC Network. WatchESPN stream
Game Two: SEC Network+ Stream
Game Three: SEC Network+ Stream
What Tony Vitello Said About The Series
On what Arkansas does well, challenges of playing there
“I should take a few minutes after we play on Tuesday to look. Not that I don’t know some of the guys but there’s— the familiarity of knowing the guys as recruits is completely gone. So my familiarity is more with the program. It’s a lively park with the fans. You’re going to have as big of a fanbase as anybody has. They know the game well and are going to try and make it tough on the opponent. No place is going to be the same but we’ve kind of looked at what that’s like in Arizona at Grand Canyon and in Baton Rouge. The guy (Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn) is a winner. He knows how to manage a game and certainly has an approach with the pitching staff that he’ll use so those consistencies are factors that are going to be there consistently every year. But I think this year they have a bunch of guys that were waiting their time. I know they lost as many guys as we did, as Mississippi did but it’s not like they’re filling them in with guys that aren’t any good. Couple portal guys. One from Kansas themselves and one from Creighton that’s a big ole strong guy and then they have a couple lefties on the mound that are really good too. We’ll look at the much bigger picture but they are consistently one of the best programs in the league for a good reason.”
On managing emotions with the recent history between these two teams
“[It was] different guys. I mean Fergy (Max Ferguson) was on the team, and I forget there’s another thing that went on–I’m now reflecting because you’re bringing it up–but that was a while ago. It’s certainly a storyline for the fans. That’s what makes this league so great. So there’s some things there for people to talk about and it may rear their head at certain points in the weekend, you could say maybe that’s because of this or that. I don’t really know how to speak for them (Arkansas) on where they’re at. I know they’re having a lot of success, so I’m sure they’ll want to keep it rolling. For us, it’s… Are we going to show up to the park with the best approach possible for us? Ultimately, as coaches you are trying to put kids in a position to succeed, and we’re doing our best to do that, and as the year goes on, we’re learning guys and things like that, but the kids need to put themselves in the best position to succeed or their teammates in the best position, too. By now, we’ve stacked up enough reps on gameday that we kind of know what we need to do when we’re struggling, when it’s going well, how to approach each day; game one, game two, and game three are all different. So, an inward reflection is going on right now for our guys. You don’t have time to do that on gameday, so I think the next couple of days, kind of having a sense whether they want to talk about it and meet, the meeting is not going to come from me, or just kind of make the decision that, ‘If we’re going to play ball, let’s play ball.’ Again, they know by now what that formula is, and there’s a lot of things that go into it, but I think it’s time to cut out the fat of, you can do without this, you don’t need to read this, you don’t need to talk to this person the night before a game, you don’t need to be worrying about this a night or two before the game. Show up and play ball.”
On the key to playing loose at Arkansas
“Just cut out the – I can say BS I think. Stuff kids look up on their phones these days, gosh I can say BS. Get to the essentials. What do I need to do to get myself ready to play and what do I need to do to help my buddy next to me get ready to play? I’ve sat in here and done it on the radio, by now I definitely sound like I’m whining. I’m trying to defend them, though. It’s already hard enough, this game, and then you do it at the highest amateur level in this league. Now, it’s super hard. So why are you going to tack on all this other stuff? Well, I can see why. There’s good reason. We could break it down by individual or break it down as out while team. But, why do you have to make it tough? I think in Yellowstone, is it Beth? She’s feisty. I think my man from Dazed and Confused tells her ‘life is hard, don’t help it.’ We have helped it a lot. Now, I want to defend them. I feel for them. There’s a lot of external BS that either some individuals have to deal with more than others or as a team. Fighting this battle, fatting that battle and so on. Arkansas is pretty good. And Baum-Walker Stadium is pretty rowdy. So, that’s there. Even more if you want to cut to the core, are we going to continue to try and find out what our best baseball is or not? That’s the question. I think they are eager to do that. I think they are kind of fatigued in not doing that on certain occasion and want to be more consistent with it. We’ll see if they will stick to their guns on that and I’ll see fi I can stick to my guns on that and focus on what the essentials are.”
Projected Pitching Matchups (via Tennessee Game Notes)
Game One — RHP Andrew Lindsey (0-1, 2.01 ERA, .90 WHIP, 26 K, 8 BB, 22.1 IP) vs. LHP Hunter Hollan (5-1, 3.00 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 39 K, 14 BB, 42 IP)
Game Two — TBD vs. TBD
Game Three — TBD vs. TBD
Bats To Know
Tennessee
Christian Moore — .320 BA, .582 OBP, 1.042 OPS, 6 HR, 12 XBH, 26 RBI
Blake Burke — .333 BA, .413 OBP 1.113 OPS, 12 HR, 18 XBH, 31 RBI
Jared Dickey — .314 BA, .403 OBP, .911 OPS, 5 HR, 11 XBH, 23 RBI
Maui Ahuna — .286 BA, .408 OBP, .968 OPS, 5 HR, 12 XBH, 22 RBI
Zane Denton — .293 BA, .439 OBP, 1.075 OPS, 8 HR, 15 XBH, 34 RBI
Jace Bohrofen — .422 BA, .551 OBP, 1.296 OPS, 8 HR, 17 XBH, 29 RBI
Jared Wegner — .351 BA, .486 OBP, 1.225 OPS, 12 HR, 17 XBH, 44 RBI
Kendal Diggs — .343 BA, 484 OBP, 1.171 OPS, 8 HR, 17 XBH, 37 RBI
Tavian Josenburg — .341 BA, .447 OBP, .984 OPS, 5 HR, 14 XBH, 22 RBI
Brady Slavens — .291 BA, .350 OBP, .841 OPS, 4 HR, 14 XBH, 25 RBI
Last Three Series
Tennessee
03/24 – 03/26 — Tennessee swept Texas A&M in Knoxville
03/30 — 04/01 — LSU won two out of three over Tennessee in Baton Rouge
04/06 — 04/08 — Florida won two out of three over Tennessee in Knoxville
Arkansas
03/24 – 03/26 — Arkansas dropped two out of three against LSU in Baton Rouge
03/30 — 04/01 — Arkansas won two out of three against Alabama in Fayetteville
04/06 — 04/08 — Arkansas won two out of three against Ole Miss in Oxford
Prediction
Life doesn’t get much easier for Tennessee this week as they head on the road to face another top five team. Arkansas doesn’t have the same level of talent that LSU or Florida has but they’re a sound baseball team that is in the top five for good reason.
The Razorbacks have been fantastic at Baum-Walker Stadium this season and Tennessee is just 2-7 away from Lindsey Nelson Stadium and just 1-5 in true road games.
Tennessee is capable of winning the series, but they’ll have to prove it to me before I pick them.
Arkansas wins two out of three
