Tennessee baseball might have had its inflection point over the weekend. Georgia run-ruled the Vols in Friday night’s series opener before jumping out to a 7-3 lead in game two of the series.
The Vols were on the verge of falling to 3-5 in SEC play with the schedule only getting harder. Then Tennessee came flying back with an impressive 16-11 win before its pitching came through in a 7-0 series rubber match victory over the Bulldogs.
At the plate, Dylan Dreilling, Kavares Tears and Blake Burke were all dominant. Dreiling hit six-of-11 with two home runs, three more doubles and seven RBIs. Tears hit five-of-10 with a pair of doubles and Burke went six-of-13 while tying the program home run record.
On the mound, a pair of veteran lefties came through for Tennessee. Kirby Connell allowed three runs in five innings of relief in game two. He stabilized the Vols’ pitching on a night they were struggling to get outs. Then Zander Sechrist turned in the best performance of his career in six scoreless innings of action against the Bulldogs on Sunday.
The series win plus a midweek win over Tennessee Tech made it a 3-1 week for Tony Vitello’s squad. Here’s where they land in the rankings afterwards.
More From RTI: What Tony Vitello Said After Clinching Series Victory Over Georgia
D1Baseball
- National rank: No. 4
- Previous rank: No. 5
USA Today Coaches Poll
- National Rank: No. 4
- Previous rank: No. 5
Baseball America
- National rank: No. 5
- Previous rank: No. 6
NCBWA
- National rank: No. 4
- Previous rank: No. 4
Perfect Game
- National rank: No. 5
- Previous rank: No. 6
2 Responses
She got a raw deal. If the same standard applies, the men’s coach needs to be treated the same, GONE! They are both good coaches and if so treat them equally.
Hey Ryan,
Your articles are always exceptional; thank you for sharing them! In case you haven’t seen this, here is a nice recent article about Trey Lipscomb, fyi.
https://actasports.com/statoftheweek/
Best wishes,