Tennessee baseball returns to the friendly confines Lindsey Nelson Stadium this weekend for its final home SEC series.
The Vols have won nine straight home games but dropped last weekend’s series at Georgia. Kentucky was reeling ahead of last weekend’s home sweep of South Carolina. The Wildcats boast the best running game in the SEC and will test Tennessee’s infield defense.
Here’s everything you need to know about the weekend series between Tennessee and Kentucky.
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Game Times — No. 23 Tennessee (33-16, 12-12 SEC) vs. No. 17 Kentucky (34-13, 14-10 SEC)
Game One (Friday): 6:30 p.m. ET
Game Two (Saturday): noon ET
Game Three (Sunday): 1 p.m. ET
How To Watch
Game One: SEC Network+ stream
Game Two: SEC Network. Live Stream
Game Three: SEC Network+ stream
What Tony Vitello Said About The Series
On Kentucky
“A good club. No. 1 in the country if you’re going to go off of RPI standards, which obviously carries a lot of weight, so, again, first in the country in that category and therefor in our league, too. A team that will have some familiar faces, but just like every year in our league with the draft and everything else, a lot of turnover. So, some new faces, too. But on offense, they like to bunt, like to run. And a pitching staff that is well coached as well.”
On how difficult it is to prepare for an unknown Kentucky starter
“Well, I think they formally announced that [Travis] Smith will throw, who threw for them and then if I’m not mistaken, the outing before that was on a Tuesday against Louisville, who’s an SEC-quality baseball program. Even though he’s a redshirt freshman, if I’m not mistaken, he’s got experience. He kind of knows what’s going on and he’s a competitor, otherwise he wouldn’t have the ball on Friday. So, you take a look at who you’re facing, and as those guys, those new guys, those first-year guys play more and more, you get a little more data, you get a little more analytics, and it does probably actually sway a little easier to prepare. Now once the game starts, you just play ball. Again, for us, we want to know who the opponent is, but ultimately, with this team in particular, we’re looking just to play our best baseball, our best versions of ourselves out there.”
On Kentucky’s ability to steal bases
“I think it’s circumstantial. On the whole, it’s a topic that you bring up for good reason. But I think it’s circumstantial – what’s going on with the score, who is up at the plate and who do we have on the mound with what the count is and stuff like that. You want to know who is on the bases and want to approach it carefully going over that way. We have talked about it and gone over stuff to prepare. I think it was against Austin Peay when they reviewed the play at second base, CMo [Christian Moore] had a really good tag and Zane Denton had a play that they reviewed at third when we were at Georgia and had a really good tag at a play around the base. So, we have to be strong around the base and be sure you’re doing a good job on the receiving end. The catch is very, very important because whoever is back there, that’s all we want them to do is to play catch. If you have to be Superman coming out of there breaking the world record for pop time, then it wasn’t meant to be to get the guy out anyway. If we play catch and do a good job on the receiving end, that to me is success. Whether the guy is out of safe, we will leave that up to the umpires.”
Projected Pitching Matchups (via Tennessee Game Notes)
Game One — RHP Andrew Lindsey (0-2, 3.02 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 45 K, 14 BB, 41.2 IP) vs. RHP Travis Smith (4-1, 3.62 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 34 K, 20 BB, 37.1 IP)
Game Two — RHP Chase Dollander (5-5, 4.26 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 88 K, 23 BB, 63.1 IP) vs. LHP Tyler Bosma (4-3, 5.04 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 34 K, 21 BB, 50 IP)
Game Three — RHP Drew Beam (6-3, 3.97 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 58 K, 17 BB, 59 IP) vs. RHP Zack Lee (4-2, 3.54 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 55 K, 24 BB, 53.1 IP)
Bats To Know
Tennessee
Jared Dickey — .342 BA, .416 OBP, .977 OPS, 10 HR, 18 XBH, 41 RBI
Griffin Merritt — .302 BA, .391 OBP, 1.081 OPS, 14 HR, 22 XBH, 35 RBI
Christian Moore — .305 BA, .453 OBP, 1.050 OPS, 12 HR, 21 XBH, 39 RBI
Hunter Ensley — .294 BA, .418 OBP, .862 OPS, 5 HR, 9 XBH, 20 RBI
Blake Burke — .304 BA, .393 OBP .990 OPS, 15 HR, 21 XBH, 40 RBI
Kentucky
Jackson Gray — .372 BA, .532 OBP, 1.129 OPS, 4 HR, 23 XBH, 29 RBI, 17 SB
Émilien Pitre — .361 BA, .496 OBP, .965 OPS, 1 HR, 15 XBH, 42 RBI, 16 SB
Hunter Gilliam — .359 BA, .447 OBP, 1.047 OPS, 10 HR, 20 XBH, 60 RBI
Jase Felker — .313 BA, .448 OBP, 828 OPS, 0 HR, 6 XBH, 25 RBI, 14 SB
Ryan Waldschmidt — .286 BA, .423 OBP, .865 OPS, 3 HR, 17 XBH, 31 RBI, 13 SB
Last Three Series
Tennessee
04/21 — 04/23 — Tennessee swept Vanderbilt in Knoxville
04/27 — 04/29 — Tennessee swept Mississippi State in Knoxville
05/05 — 05/07 — Georgia won two out of three over Tennessee in Athens
Kentucky
04/22 — 04/23 — Texas A&M won two out of three over Kentucky in Lexington
04/28 — 04/30 — Vanderbilt swept Kentucky in Nashville
05/05 — 05/07 — Kentucky swept South Carolina in Lexington
Prediction
This series has a much different feel than it did just a week ago. A week ago, Tennessee had swept back-to-back SEC foes and Kentucky had dropped seven of its last nine SEC games. Then last weekend Kentucky swept a top five foe at home and Tennessee’s road struggles continued at Georgia.
One thing that’s fascinating to me about this series. Every weekend this season, Tennessee’s opponent has been looking for payback against the Vols for last season. This weekend, it’ll be Tennessee looking to pay back Kentucky for last year’s series loss in Kentucky.
I don’t think this is a great matchup for Tennessee. Kentucky plays small ball well and runs more than any team in the SEC. The Vols infield defense has been a weak point but has to perform well this weekend.
Still, Tennessee has been so strong at home that I’m inclined to trust them to take the crucial SEC series.
Prediction: Tennessee wins two out of three
