No. 3 Tennessee Baseball vs. Missouri: How To Watch, Pitching Matchups, Prediction

“(New head coach) Kerrick Jackson replaced me when I left Missouri and he had been doing all kinds of stuff in the baseball world and he’s the new head coach there. Coach (Tim) Jamieson who I played for and I owe a lot to is now the pitching coach and Bryson LeBlanc recruits for them. I recruited Bryson so not only a familiar jersey but familiar faces. Those group chats and things like that I choose to not be a part of because I’m this guy (Tennessee head coach) but there is some communication that goes around and I’m glad that group of people are happy and I’m glad those guys are there as coaches. It may work against us this weekend because like I said they’re playing hard and playing the right way.

“I went on a tangent out there with our guys so longer answer, personally, selfishly I’m glad they’re there. I’m glad that other thing (previous coaching staff) is over with. That was a nightmare. I worked 90 hours a week at that place and I went to school there and gave it about everything— everything I do here, I did there. While that other regime was there, you know, you name it. My dad was in a life threatening car accident and I’m getting yelled at in the third base box. Many other things too. I’m glad that that’s over with and there was a change.

“So we’ll welcome those guys in here but when the game starts it’ll be just like it was in Lexington or the weekend before against LSU. There’s a lot of respect in this league everybody has for each other, but when the game starts, the game starts.”

On how difficult it is to manage everything as a first-year head coach in this league like Missouri’s Kerrick Jackson

“It’s ahead in general. I think the easiest way to put it in perspective is what if you bounce to just year four? It’s hard. Mississippi, we had great conversations with them and speaking of having respect for that coaching staff. They’ve been around for a long time and done a lot of things, the year after they won the national championship, it was a challenging one. They are all challenging and then we gotta throw in the fact that you’re not as familiar with your personnel for maybe what you like. Everyone is going to inherit decent players, if not very good players, because of our league. Maybe it’s not the setup that fits the way you’re going to coach or the style of offense that you run. So, it shows you how much it complicates it. Even when you’ve been recruiting the same way and been at the same school for 10 years, each year you are looking into SEC play and it’s ‘holy hell.’ You can times it by three, four or five – whatever you think the appropriate math is, but it’s very, very difficult. Like anything, you have to be persistent. Those guys are good dudes there and so are the guys down at Alabama – I know it’s their first year and working through that. It’s a tall, tall task. Not that this wasn’t stressful tonight. We were the Bad News Bears for the top half of an inning. That was high alert, high stress – whatever we had when we weren’t supposed to go outside, orange threat or whatever terrorism. We were on super red or whatever the worst color is every day here that first year.”

Projected Pitching Matchups

Game Two: RHP Drew Beam (10 GS, 5-1, 3.40 ERA, 55.2 IP, 49 K, 12 BB, 1.33 WHIP) vs. RHP Logan Lunceford (10 GS, 1-3, 7.44 ERA, 42.1 IP, 39 K, 15 BB, 1.56 WHIP)

Game Three: TBD vs. LHP Javyn Pimental (8 GS, 2-2, 3.73 ERA, 41 IP, 43 K, 13 BB, 1.05 WHIP)

Bats To Know

Tennessee:

1B Blake Burke — .412/.474/.817, 14 HR, 34 EBH, 38 RBI, 18 BB, 23 K

The Vols are playing extremely well right now and there’s no reason to think it comes to a close this weekend. Missouri has a strong pitching staff but a lackluster offense. Tennessee’s offense is going to have success against just about any pitching staff, especially at home. I have a hard time thinking the Tigers can keep up.

Tennessee sweeps Missouri