Tennessee got a huge series win this weekend as the Vols took 2-of-3 against South Carolina. Let’s look back at the weekend and look forward to next weekend when the Vols travel to Vanderbilt.
THREE OBSERVATIONS
1 - Deja Vu?- Let’s be frank, Tennessee blew a huge opportunity Saturday night. Zach Linginfelter had his best start of the season and was showing an efficiency that he hasn’t in his time at Tennessee.
A pair of big RBI doubles by South Carolina, one off Linginfelter and the other off Andrew Schultz, gave South Carolina a 3-2 lead.
The seventh inning was just the second inning in the game where the Gamecocks got a runner in scoring position.
On top of that, Tennessee batters were terrible in the clutch as seven of them struck out with runners in scoring position in the last four innings.
Three of those strikeouts came when Tennessee loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth inning. The Vols desperately needed to put the ball in play to tie up the game but couldn’t get the job done.
The Saturday night loss brought up the rubber-match on Sunday, as both teams were looking for SEC win No. 2.
After Chris Cullen hit his second two RBI double of the weekend the Gamecocks lead 3-2 again in the seventh inning.
Then Tennessee did what it did Saturday night, the Vols loaded the bases with nobody out in the eighth inning. This time though, the Vols delivered as Connor Pavolony got a RBI groundout, Jake Rucker got a two-RBI single, and Max Ferguson had a sac fly.
The three huge at-bats by the freshmen gave Tennessee four runs in the inning and was good enough to give the Vols a 6-3 win.
Vitello praised the freshmen after the game talking about how they have been winners their whole life, and have brought that mindset to a program that has lacked it in the past decade.
2 -Props to Will Neely- In this column two weeks ago I talked about Neely’s leash starting to get short as the Vols’ Sunday starter.
He turned in a solid performance last Sunday at Auburn and was very solid against the Gamecocks yesterday
On the surface, Sunday didn’t seem like a good matchup for Neely. South Carolina leads the league in homeruns and the wind was blowing out to left field. As a pitch to contact pitcher, Neely was going to have to be solid.
Neely was the reliable pitcher that he’s been for much of his four years in Knoxville.
The senior pitched 5.1 innings allowing four hits, one run, three walks, and striking out four batters.
He got Tennessee deep into the game with a lead, and didn’t give Garrett Crochet a sticky situation to come in to when Vitello went to the lefty in the sixth.
Credit to Neely, the Vols have some talented pitchers that could take that Sunday spot for him, but he’s steadied at the start of conference play and is giving Tennessee a fighting chance on Sundays.
In this league that’s all you can ask for.
3 -Vitello rolls with his top guys out of the pen- Tony Vitello has consistently praised his squad’s pitching depth this season. The Vols have some strong arms in their bullpen, but when it counted this weekend, he rode his best guys.
With Tennessee in a jam Friday night, Vitello took the ball from Stallings in the sixth inning and gave it to Crochet with nobody out and Tennessee holding an 8-3 lead.
Crochet allowed one of Stallings’ runs to score, but limited any more damage.
Crochet was prepared to come back out in the seventh, but Tennessee’s offense exploded for four runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Don’t undersell how big it was for Tennessee to extend that lead. It gave Vitello the comfortability to go to other pitchers and allowed Crochet to throw multiple innings on Sunday.
After pulling Zach Linginfelter in the seventh inning of Saturday’s game, Vitello went to Andrew Schultz, the Vols hard throwing righty.
Schultz gave up a big hit allowing Linginfelter’s last run to score, but Vitello rode it out with him as he pitched the last 2.1 innings of the game giving up the lone hit and walking one batter.
Vitello went back to Crochet in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game and despite not having his best stuff he let Crochet pitch it out as he threw the last 3.2 innings of the game.
Crochet gave up two runs, but didn’t allow the Gamecocks to do much else in the last two innings, as the sophomore threw 70 pitches out of the bullpen.
Neely giving Tennessee five solid innings and then giving Crochet the ball to take you the distance is going to be the Vols winning formula on Sunday’s. Whether Neely can give them that and whether Crochet will have enough innings left in him by Sunday will be the question.
TWO QUESTIONS
Does Tennessee throw a plethora of pitchers Tuesday?
Tennessee threw 10 pitchers in last Tuesday’s midweek win over ETSU. Vitello clearly wanted all hands on deck this weekend for the series against South Carolina.
Vitello joked postgame that he’d thought more about Tennessee’s Sweet 16 matchup than the game Tuesday, but I’d expect Tennessee to do the same in the Vols' rematch the Bucs in the mid-week tilt.
Tennessee’s usual mid-week starter Sean Hunley hasn’t had his best stuff in his last two outings and Camden Sewell exited Saturday night’s game with back stiffness.
Tennessee also didn’t use a lot of arms out of the bullpen this week and will want to keep the arms fresh heading into the series against Vanderbilt.
On top of that, the Commodores have one of the league’s best lineups and I imagine Vitello will want all hands on deck for the series.
More on that and the challenge Tennessee faces below.
Can Tennessee’s offense rise to the occasion?
Tennessee’s pitching has carried the Vols so far in SEC play, and besides exploding for 15 runs in Friday night’s win, the bats haven’t been great.
In fact, in Tennessee’s five other SEC games the Vols have just 13 runs combined.
They’re going to need the bats to step up at Vanderbilt if they’re going to pick up a win.
Vanderbilt leads the SEC in batting average and on base percentage. On top of that the Commodores rank third in runs scored.
The Commodores scored 34 runs this weekend in a sweep over Florida. That’s six more runs than the Vols scored in their first two conference series.
Vanderbilt’s pitching staff has been susceptible to giving up some runs this season as they rank just ninth in the league in ERA, but they were good on the mound this weekend allowing only six runs.
If Tennessee is going to have any success in the Music City the bats have to give the Vols more than they are right now.
ONE PREDICTION
Tennessee wins a game in Nashville
Winning a game in a series doesn’t sound like a really big deal, but Vanderbilt is good and the next three series are very tough for Tennessee.
Two weeks into the conference season, the Vols are just 2-4, but with a down SEC East Tennessee, is still tied for third in the division.
Picking up wins while they can is going to be big these next three weekends before the schedule lightens up for the Vols.
Vanderbilt isn’t unbeatable and the Vols pitchers have shown that they’ve been up to the task in every series this season.
Vanderbilt’s lineup will be the most challenging yet, but I wouldn’t expect the Vols’ pitchers to go down without a fight.
I wrote last week that the South Carolina series would be a pivotal one. The Vols did what they needed to do to get the series win. Let’s see if they can keep the momentum with a good weekend in Nashville.
