After dropping its first two games of the season in a series split with Indiana State, Tennessee responded, going on the road for a midweek win at Austin Peay before sweeping an overachieving Georgia State team.
Three Observations
1. — Pitching shows its depth— Tennessee was without two of its best pitchers this weekend as Jackson Leath will be sideline for at least “five or six weeks” and Friday night starter Chad Dallas didn’t pitch due to precaution with a sore oblique.
Still, Tennessee’s pitching staff completely shut down the Panthers’ offense holding them to just two runs over the course of the weekend.
Georgia State’s lineup is far from a juggernaut, but the Panthers had success at the plate in each of their first two weekend series, averaging eight runs a game against West Virginia and four runs a game against Vanderbilt.
On the mound, everything started with Will Heflin who was fantastic in an emergency start Friday. The veteran bullpen arm made his first career weekend start, allowing just six hits and one run in seven innings.
Heflin fanned eight Georgia State batters and showed he can be a starter if called upon.
Blade Tidwell’s third start was his best to date and showed what Frank Anderson and Tony Vitello saw in him to make him a weekend starter from his first career start. The Loretto, Tennessee native allowed zero runs, four hits and two walks in six innings while striking out seven.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Tennessee’s pitching on the weekend was the lack of use of Sean Hunley and Redmond Walsh. The two seniors have been the Vols’ best relievers the past few seasons and so far this season, but after Tennessee taxed both hard against Indiana State the duo combined for just three innings on the weekend.
Hunley also allowed one of Georgia State’s two runs on the weekend as the Panthers used a pair of hits in the seventh inning to pull within one of UT on Saturday.
The jury is still out on whether Tennessee has elite SEC level pitching at the top of its rotation, but this weekend proved just how strong the Vols’ depth on the mound is.
2. —Offense pieces it together— Tennessee’s offense hasn’t come out the gates firing this season, and while the Vols didn’t blow anyone away with their performance at the plate this weekend, they did have strong approaches and consistency in the batter’s box.
It doesn’t look like the Vols’ offense is going to be like it may have been last season when they finished second in the nation in home runs, but Tennessee’s offense looked like the 2019 version of itself this weekend, not blowing you away with anything while doing all the little things right and consistently competing.
Tennessee took advantage of Georgia State mistakes from the first inning of the series when Panthers’ starting pitcher Ryan Anderson balked two times and the Vols scored two runs off of it.
The Vols scored off of sac flies, ground outs, walks and a trio of timely home runs on the weekend, finding a way to get the job done at the plate no matter what.
Vitello was complimentary of his team’s approach at the plate all weekend as Tennessee struck out just 21 times, a massive improvement over the 45 strikeouts at Georgia State and even the 33 strikeouts against Indiana State.
3. —Vols get elite production from the leadoff spot— Tennessee was expecting to have an elite leadoff hitter this season. Second basemen Max Ferguson was a preseason All American and hit .333 while stealing nine bases in the leadoff spot last season.
However, Ferguson has struggled at the plate to start the season and Tennessee looked to its other middle infielder, shortstop Liam Spence, to fill the role.
Spence was first at the top of the Vols’ order in the Sunday win over Indiana State and he hasn’t looked back, hitting eight-for-19 with four RBIs.
The Australia native has been one of Tennessee’s best hitters all season but was particularly lethal this weekend, leading Tennessee’s offense with six hits and an astounding .643 on-base percentage.
With Spence at the leadoff spot and three-hitter Jake Rucker starting to get to form, the top of the Vols’ lineup has been far more dangerous than it was to open the season.
I’ll always be a cautious to be over the top with praise of a player until I see them produce against SEC competition, Spence was a junior college transfer last season, but the senior has been one of Tennessee’s only veterans that has been consistent this season, recording a .380 batting average through the first 13 games.
“He did it at Central Arizona when he was in junior college and they won a national championship,” Vitello said. “It’s something he’s familiar with. It’s something we went back-and-forth with probably— he, Fergy, C(hristian) Scott in scrimmages. The one thing you always know you’re going to get is a competitive at-bat and I think you see
that good approach even in some of the at-bats he doesn’t get great results in.”
Two Questions
1. Where’s Jason Rackers?
Tony Vitello hardly went an offseason media availability the past two seasons without talking about Jason Rackers, even naming him as one of the likely candidates to earn the Friday starter position.
However, through 13 games Rackers has just pitched once, two innings versus Arkansas- Pine Bluff, and hasn’t earned a weekend appearance.
Rackers talked to the media following his lone Tennessee appearance and said that he still wasn’t 100% after having Tommy John’s surgery last spring but that he thought he was hopefully a month away from being completely recovered.
As previously said, Tennessee’s pitching depth has been incredibly impressive but it’s still surprising that we haven’t seen more of the Jefferson City, Missouri native.
Still, Rackers was recruited out of junior college as a weekend starter and has high level stuff. With the lack of a set weekend rotation, it’s surprising that Rackers hasn’t been used in a start or long inning role, let alone the fact that he hasn’t pitched at all.
2. Does Pleasants stay in the bullpen?
Let’s stick with the questions surrounding Tennessee’s starting rotation. After a strong preseason, Elijah Pleasants earned the Sunday starter spot to begin the season. Things didn’t go particularly well for Pleasants in his first two outings, giving up seven runs in seven innings.
This week Pleasants went back to the bullpen, his role his first two seasons, and was absolutely fantastic. Pleasants threw six scoreless innings of relief against Austin Peay, earning the win while striking out six in his hometown.
The junior was the first man out of Tennessee’s bullpen Sunday, spelling starter Mark McLaughlin after 3.2 innings. Again, Pleasants was great out of the bullpen allowing just one baserunner while fanning three in 2.1 innings.
Vitello and Pleasants both attributed the two strong performances to him settling down and simplifying things, not coming out of the bullpen. Still, it’s hard to think Pleasants goes right back to starting after struggling in that role.
In the long term, Tennessee needs someone to take the reins of the Sunday starter spot, but for now Vitello seems content in finding someone who can keep the Vols in it through the first three to four innings with six different pitchers earning weekend starts at this point in the season.
One Prediction
Max Ferguson has a strong week
Max Ferguson hasn’t started the season like the preseason All-American he is, but the junior looked much better at the plate this week, striking out just once after striking out 10 times through the first nine games.
Ferguson moving away from the leadoff spot wasn’t just beneficial for Spence and the team but also Ferguson. The junior was able to get on base at a much higher rate this week, earning five walks in four games and recording a .500 on-base percentage.
“I think Max is starting to get a whiff of that (success) as well,” Vitello said. “He had the smile on his face with the bunt hit— a weapon of his he needs to use. He looked more appropriate in the cage, he’s not turning the thing into a science project, he’s just being an athlete.”
Still there’s room for improvement at the plate as Ferguson recorded just five hits and no extra-base hits this week.
This week, the Vols head back on the road for a midweek matchup with 7-3 Charlotte before hosting 9-2 North Carolina- Greensboro for a three game series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. I think Ferguson’s play is going to take another step forward and the Vols will continue to get more from its juniors.
