Diamond Vols 3-2-1: Vols survive gauntlet, look to build off series win
Tennessee turned in its best weekend of Tony Vitello’s young tenure in Knoxville, as the Vols took 2-of-3 from No. 2 Georgia. The series win was Tennessee’s first over a Top 5 team since 2016, when Dave Serano’s squad won 2-of-3 over fourth-ranked Vanderbilt.
Let’s look back at the successful weekend and look ahead to the Vols’ roadtrip to Lexington.
THREE TAKEAWAYS
1. Garrett Stallings does it again: Garrett Stallings turned in another incredible performance Friday night and it just can’t be overstated how good the junior has been this season.
He was spectacular Friday night, turning in a complete game shutout of the Bulldogs. His efficiency was again incredible as he needed only 101 pitches. He kept Georgia batters off-balance all night and was able to keep the ball on the ground, helping the Vols turn a pair of key double plays.
His ability to go the whole game gave Tennessee a fighting chance Saturday as the bullpen was thin due to the heavy loads Garrett Crochet, Redmond Walsh, and Andrew Schultz took on Thursday.
Stallings’ ERA dropped to 1.88 after his start Thursday, good enough for eighth-best in the conference. He also leads the league in innings pitched and is eighth in strikeouts. That last stat would've been unthinkable a year ago when he only struck out 37 batters.
His game is better this season in nearly every facet. He’s cut his ERA in half and has been a legit SEC Friday pitcher. It’s been huge for this Tennessee team and in a little over a month will make him a much wealthier man.
2. They desperately need more from Ammons and Martinez: Tennessee’s offense has had its issues all season, but it had enough guys who could get on-base and give them opportunities to tally some runs.
Two of those guys, Ricky Martinez and Justin Ammons, have seen their offensive production has disappear over the last few weeks. Both of their batting averages dropped under .300 for the first time all season this weekend.
The pair went 2-for-18 in the Georgia series and left a lot to be desired from the back half of Tennessee’s lineup.
Ammons did have two big sac flies on Thursday night, but really struggled the rest of the weekend finding the base paths only once and striking out three times.
Georgia’s elite pitching staff certainly had something to do with the struggles, but Tennessee will need more out of those two going forward.
It would be huge for the Vols if Luc Lipcius could return to action next weekend. Max Ferguson has done a good job filling in for the junior, but he doesn’t bring the firepower that Lipcius brings to the lineup.
Lipcius 11 extra-base hits in just 16 games make him the dynamic type of hitter the Vols could really use.
3. They survived the gauntlet: For three straight weekends, Tennessee faced a Top 5 opponent in what was its toughest stretch of the season. I said before three weeks ago, that going 3-6 would be considered successful.
They bested that, finishing the tough stretch 4-5. They desperately needed to avoid getting swept after the disastrous weekend at Auburn, but winning a series seemed unlikely.
I think a pivotal moment in the season will be the Sunday win at Vanderbilt. They didn’t look good in those first two games and it took a stellar performance by Garrett Crochet to hold off the Commodore’s lineup for over four innings.
These last two weekends Tennessee had a chance to win every single game besides Saturday’s loss to Georgia. I won’t go as far as to say that Tennessee is as good as Georgia and Mississippi State, but Vitello was right they are good enough to beat them, at least at home.
Tennessee currently sits a 6-9 halfway through the conference schedule and has a great chance to make it to the NCAA Tournament. The Vols sit in 10th place in the SEC and Missouri is a game and a half ahead of them. The Tigers postseason fate is still up in the air due to NCAA violations, but it's possible that their ban will hold and Tennessee will take the nine seed to Hoover.
Everything that this team wants to accomplish is still out in front of them, and that makes the past three weeks a success.
TWO QUESTIONS
What’s up with Linginfelter?
Tennessee’s hard-throwing right hander Zach Linginfelter turned in his second poor performance in three games Saturday, giving up five runs in two innings to the Bulldogs.
Consistency and command issues were a problem for Linginfelter earlier in his career, but it seemed like he’d turned the corner early this season. That hasn’t carried over to conference play as the junior has been sporadic in his five starts.
After failing to make it out of the second inning against Vanderbilt, Linginfelter had his best start of the year against Mississippi State where he turned in 6.2 innings of one-run baseball against the Bulldogs’ stacked lineup.
He couldn’t carry that over to his start against Georgia as he had little command, walking the first two batters of the game and giving up four hits.
Linginfelter’s 8.44 ERA is the worst of any Tennessee pitcher in conference play. At this point, Linginfelter appears to be a guy that you’re not going to know what you’re going to get.
They don’t need his Mississippi State performance every week, but as Tennessee gets into more winnable series they can’t have Linginfelter only giving them two innings on Saturday’s.
Can they keep it rolling?
Tennessee’s gauntlet is over, but life never gets too easy in the SEC.
They head to Lexington next weekend to face Kentucky. The Wildcats are currently tied for last in the SEC with a 4-11 record, but they’re coming off a series win over Ole Miss who entered the weekend in first place in the league.
This is a series that Tennessee needs to win, but doing so on the road won’t be easy. Kentucky’s pitching staff, with the exception of Zack Thompson, has had its struggles this year and should be a pleasant sight for the Vols after their tough weekend against Georgia.
This series is a huge one for the Vols and with a trip to Fayetteville looming in the near future Tennessee needs to pick up a win.
ONE PREDICTION
Crochet stays in the third starter spot
Sophomore Garrett Crochet got his first start of the season Thursday night, due to Will Neely’s ankle injury.
Crochet wasn’t incredible, as he struggled to put away Georgia batters away, but the lefty did his job throwing five scoreless innings working around a couple of jams.
There isn’t a person who thinks Will Neely is better than Crochet, but having a lefty like Crochet in the bullpen made it hard for them to move him to a starting spot.
Now that he’s in it though, I don’t think they move him away from it.
Neely pitched on Sunday and with another Thursday-Saturday series coming up it makes sense to leave Crochet in that Thursday spot that would give him a full week of rest and would keep the routine the same for Stallings and Linginfelter.
Crochet gives the Vols the best chance to win on Sunday’s going forward, and I don’t think Vitello takes the ball away from him. If Vitello doesn’t in the next two weeks he likely won’t until Crochet is selected in the MLB draft.