Tennessee baseball is mixing up its weekend starting rotation for the first time this season in its road series at Arkansas. Relief pitcher Andrew Lindsey will start Friday night’s series opener with the game two and game three starters to be determined according to UT game notes.
Vols’ coach Tony Vitello said that Tennessee was considering a change to its weekend rotation after Chase Burns struggled for the fourth straight start last weekend against Florida. So it wasn’t surprising to see Tennessee make a change but who and when is at least somewhat surprising.
RHP Andrew Lindsey has been a strong reliever for Tennessee this season, posting a 2.01 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in 22.1 innings pitched. The Charlotte transfer is one of Tennessee’s top relievers and has a 3.18 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in conference play.
However, Lindsey doesn’t have an overload of starting experience or SEC experience. Key reliever Seth Halvorsen was Missouri’s Friday night starter in 2021 before transferring to Tennessee last season. Super senior Camden Sewell has been fantastic in extended outings out of the bullpen in his career and has shined in his few career starts.
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Those factors seemingly made Halvorsen and Sewell more likely to enter the weekend rotation but Lindsey is plenty capable.
The other surprising part of the move is that Chase Burns has been Tennessee’s game two starter this season with Chase Dollander being the Friday night ace. Dollander hasn’t struggled as much as Burns this season but also hasn’t been as effective as he was last season.
Time will tell who ends up starting game two and three for Tennessee but moving Dollander out of the weekend rotation would be a major shock. Dollander was the Vols’ game two starter last season and moving back to that role could help him regain his momentum.
First pitch for the weekend series at Baum-Walker Stadium in Arkansas is at 8 p.m. ET Friday night.
