Tennessee baseball is moving up the first pitch time for the first two games of its weekend series against Bowling Green, the program announced Wednesday.
The Vols will open their weekend series against Bowling Green at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday night before facing the Falcons at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The Friday game was originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET while the Saturday game was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.
Tennessee enters the weekend in the middle of a 15-game home stand before they open up SEC play on March 15 at Alabama. The Vols are 6-0 on the home stand to date after surviving a midweek scare to defeat High Point 7-4 on Tuesday afternoon.
Tony Vitello’s seventh Tennessee team currently boasts an 8-1 record and is riding a seven-game winning streak dating back to its extra-innings loss against Oklahoma in the Shriners Children’s Classic in Dallas.
More From RTI: What Tony Vitello Said After Tennessee’s Midweek Win Over High Point
Bowling Green enters the weekend 2-4 and already has extensive experience playing in the Volunteer State this season. The Falcons took one game in their season opening series at MTSU before taking one game in their series against Memphis last weekend.
The Vols face some pitching questions entering the weekend. Ace AJ Russell exited his start last week against UAlbany with a side strain and Tennessee plans on giving him the weekend off. Cal transfer LHP Chris Stamos also dealt with soreness in the Vols’ Tuesday afternoon win over High Point and his status is uncertain for the weekend.
Drew Beam will start for Tennessee on Saturday but it’s uncertain who will start on Friday and Sunday. Here’s what Vitello said about it on Tuesday.
“The one thing we do know is the consistency of Drew [Beam] and we trust him to be the rock in the middle of the week for us,” Vitello said. “I think Sunday will literally be a wait – maybe even Sunday morning – to see how guys feel. So, that will be those two days. I think by Saturday, guys like Kirby [Connell] will be ready to come back or some other guys will be fresh. Friday is going to be who can get outs for us. I don’t exactly know when [AJ] Causey will get them, but he’s kind of been a Friday combo guy with AJ [Russell]. So, he’ll pitch in some capacity, and we will need him to get out here.”
First pitch for the weekend series is at 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon. All three games for the weekend series are streaming on SEC Network+.
