Tennessee’s nine game home stand is over. After falling to Tennessee Tech to open the home stand, the Vols reeled off eight straight wins.
The eight-game winning streak included series sweeps over Vanderbilt and Mississippi State as Tennessee effectively turned its season around. Tony Vitello’s sixth Tennessee team entered the stretch on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tournament race and exits the home stand in a good spot to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight time.
So what is the key to Tennessee continuing its recent success as it heads on the road to Georgia?
“I think just keeping the same energy that we have had the past few weeks,” utility man Jared Dickey said. “I think our dugout has been really good about staying in the dugout the whole time. The pitchers are doing a really good job of pounding the strike zone and our hitters are sticking to their approach. That is pretty much all you can ask for.”
“Just keep doing what we are doing,” relief pitcher Zander Sechrist said. “Keep the energy up. Keep riding this wave we have going. Don’t overthink. Just keep going.”
Finding success on the road has been extremely difficult for Tennessee this season. The Vols are 1-9 in true road games this season (1-8 in SEC play) and are 2-10 away from Lindsey Nelson Stadium this season.
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In SEC play, there’s been challenges in every road series. At Missouri, Tennessee played in cold weather and didn’t adequately respond as the Tigers swept the Vols. The Vols didn’t play poorly but dropped two out of three at No. 1 LSU and then played very poorly as No. 4 Arkansas swept Tennessee in Fayetteville.
What does Vitello make of his team’s struggles away from home this season?
“Each weekend, to be honest with you, completely different circumstances and a little bit different vibe from our team,” Vitello said. “I’d say if there’s a complaint you’d like some consistency, but we haven’t really gotten in a rhythm where we’re on the road and we’re not. So now we’re in that rhythm so it’ll be interesting to see.
“Really what you want is for your guys to keep playing baseball the way they’re playing here. It’s really fun to be at home and every SEC team that’s really good is good at home so it’s better to be the hero but sometimes you gotta go on the road and be the villain. Playing Bane would be fun too. Not just Batman. Especially if you don’t have that bad voice Christian Bale had in that deal.”
Past Vitello coached teams at Tennessee have excelled playing the villain. However, this Tennessee team has struggled for much of the season finding its rhythm and identity. That has seemingly changed in the last two weeks in large part due to an afternoon with strength coach Quentin Eberhardt.
The good news for Tennessee is the task on the road this week isn’t as challenging. Georgia enters the weekend series 8-13 in SEC play and has dropped two of its last three series. However, the Bulldogs have lost just one home series in SEC play this season and swept Arkansas at Foley Field two weeks ago.
Playing well on the road is the last box Tennessee baseball is looking to check to show they’re playing near their potential. If they don’t check it this weekend they’ll be on the road the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament looking to prove it then.
