After its two best weekends of the season, Tennessee took a step backwards in Tony Vitello’s return to Fayetteville, as the Vols were swept by the Razorbacks, including a 4-3 extra-inning loss on Sunday.
Let’s look back at the disappointing weekend and look forward to a huge series against Missouri.
THREE OBSERVATIONS
1. Tough weekend on the mound: Tennessee’s pitching staff has been one of the nation’s best this season. The unit has led the Vols to their surprising year and have held up well against some of the best lineups in the nation.
It wasn’t good enough this weekend to get past the Razorbacks, as the Arkansas lineup had a huge weekend at the plate against both the Vols starters and their bullpen.
Arkansas’ offense exploded for 30 runs in the three game set, the most Tennessee has allowed in a series all season — surpassing the 20 runs given up in the Vanderbilt series back in March.
Garrett Crochet had his breaking ball working well on Friday, striking out seven batters, but his command failed him as he walked four in his 4.2 innings of work. Despite giving up seven runs, six earned, in his short outing Tennessee was still in the game when he exited in the fifth.
The bullpen failed the Vols on Friday night as Arkansas exploded with a four-run sixth inning off Andrew Schultz.
Tennessee’s bullpen issues didn’t end on Friday as the relievers gave up a total of 13 runs on the weekend..
Garrett Stallings had his first poor start of the season, getting rocked by the Razorbacks in Saturday’s 15-3 loss. The junior allowed eight runs off 10 hits and failed to get out of the fourth inning.
Linginfelter was the one exception from the Vols' poor pitching but he wasn’t great either. The junior exited the game after throwing just 4.1 innings. He left the game allowing one earned run but left the bases juiced for Redmond Walsh.
Linginfelter ended the game with a line of two runs, five hits, and two walks while striking out nine.
2. Lineup changes: Tony Vitello tinkered with his lineup more this weekend than he previously had this season, using three different lineups.
Despite a combined 1-for-10 performance from the one-two hitters (Jay Charleston and Justin Ammons) on Friday night, the Vols exploded to one of its best offensive performances of the season with nine runs
Vitello decided to mix things up Saturday moving the tandem to the eight-nine spots. Pete Derkay moved to the leadoff spot and Andre Lipcius and Al Soularie moved up a spot to hit in the two and three holes.
It was the first time this season that Lipcius didn’t hit in the three spot as the Vols opted for power over speed in the top of the order. After scoring three runs on seven hits Saturday, Vitello once again made changes.
Charleston moved back to the leadoff spot, but freshman Christian Scott made his first SEC start and hit second playing over Ammons. The Clarksville, Tenn. Native went 0-for-2 in his debut before Ammons pinch hit for him in the sixth inning.
3. Uncharacteristic mistakes: Similarly to Auburn’s sweep of Tennessee, the Vols made mistakes this weekend that they hadn’t made in weeks.
Despite entering the weekend with the league’s second-best fielding percentage, Tennessee made five errors on the weekend including some costly ones.
With Tennessee leading by three runs in the fifth inning of Friday night’s opener, it appeared the Vols were in a great spot to steal the series opener. With one out and a runner on first, a routine ball hit to second appeared that it would be an inning ending double play, but Jake Rucker misplayed the ball allowing both runners to reach safely.
Arkansas made Tennessee pay as the very next batter launched a home run into the left field bleachers to tie the game at seven.
Mistakes, while smaller, were costly in Sunday’s loss, as well. Redmond Walsh entered the game with Tennessee trailing 1-0 in the fifth and the bases loaded. Walsh, who has been the Vols most consistent reliever this season, hit Hester Kjerstad on the elbow on his very first pitch allowing the run to score.
With one-out and a runner on first in extra innings, a hard-hit grounder, that if played very well would’ve been an inning ending double play, bounced off Soularie’s chest and allowed the runners to reach.
The play wasn’t ruled an error and was a very difficult play for a guy seeing his first action at the position all year, but those are the types of plays Tennessee has made this season and allowed them to be successful.
Tennessee’s going to lean on pitching and fielding every weekend. Neither lived up to its expectations in Fayetteville.
TWO QUESTIONS
Could Justin Ammons actually fall out of the everyday lineup?
Before Sunday, Justin Ammons has started nearly every game in his Tennessee career but he was not in the line up for the series finale.
I’ve been critical of Ammons and his play in SEC action, but I didn’t believe he was actually in a position to actually fall out of the lineup.
Ammons not starting on Sunday could just be a motivational tool as Vitello tries to get the Memphis, Tenn. native to break out of his slump. The dugout is the best motivator, but it could also show that Vitello wants to test some other options in right field down the stretch.
Ammons seemed to respond well to being pulled out of the lineup as he pinch hit for Christian Scott in the fifth inning and went 1-2 reaching on an error and picking up the game tying RBI in the eighth inning.
Vitello and his staff love Scott’s speed and fielding and believe once his bat comes around, he will be a good everyday player for the Vols. I would be surprised if Scott hits at a high level down the stretch, but Ammons is just hitting .173 in conference play and if Scott’s glove is better it feels hard to justify keeping Ammons in the lineup every day.
Zach Daniels is another candidate to take some at-bats away from Ammons as the raw sophomore has shown his ability to contribute the last few weeks.
After homering in Saturday’s loss, Daniels now has three homers on the season, all since April 7th.
I expect Ammons to still see the bulk of the meaningful starts in right field, but his absence from the starting lineup Sunday shows that Vitello isn’t afraid to try out some different options.
How does Tennessee respond?
For the first time since mid-March, Tennessee faces some real adversity. The Vols fell back to 9-12 in conference play after getting swept for the second time this season.
In a weekend that could’ve seen Tennessee solidify its NCAA Tournament spot, or even bolster its chance to host a regional, the Vols fall right back onto the bubble.
Getting swept at Arkansas isn’t a reason to hit the panic button. The Razorbacks have swept three SEC opponents, including Missouri, at home this season, but it does make Tennessee’s room for error smaller.
Tennessee will have this losing taste in its mouth all week as they don’t have a midweek game due to finals.
Tennessee’s next two weekends will likely define the season as it sits 1.5 games behind Missouri and is tied with Florida as the three fight for the third-place spot in the SEC East
Tennessee has bounced back from its previous shortcomings this season, and while I don’t know if they’ll take the series against Missouri, I expect them to look more like themselves and return to playing their style of baseball.
ONE PREDICTION
Tennessee will win the next time Stallings takes the mound
There is no doubt that Garrett Stallings’ performance on Saturday night wasn’t his best, but I’d be surprised if he didn’t bounce back in his next start.
I don’t know if he’ll pitch again next Friday or Saturday, more likely than not Saturday, but I think it’ll be a good one.
Stallings has been the Vols’ most consistent pitcher this season if not the most consistent player on the team. The junior is a level headed pitcher who never gets too low or too high.
Missouri’s strength is its pitching staff and they sit in the bottom half of the league in most hitting categories.
Next week’s series is a huge one as the Tigers and Vols are neck-and-neck in the SEC East standings. I don’t know who will come out on top next weekend, but my money is on Tennessee picking up a win with Stallings on the bump.
