It’s no secret that Tennessee’s offense has struggled at times this season. When you take out the Vols’ two 15-plus run performances, they are averaging only 3.4 runs a game in conference games.
However, last weekend in Lexington, Tennessee showed what its offense can be at its very best. The Vols showed a balanced attack at the plate, dismantling the Wildcats’ pitchers for a season-best 28 runs on the weekend.
Tennessee’s success at the plate was in large part due to the large quantity of players that contributed, something the Vols have lacked at times this season.
Tennessee got RBIs from 12 different players in the series sweep of Kentucky.
“I think depth was kind of one of the things that kept coming up in the offices from the fall,” head coach Tony Vitello said.
“We have it on defense, and we have it on pitching more than anything, but on offense as the repetitions start to build up some of those young guys get more comfortable. I think now it’s not about ‘these three guys from last years’ team and a couple of our newcomers’ but it’s about a group in its entirety. That’s what allowed us to pick up the slack when Luc (Lipcius) wasn’t around and also what helped us with Max (Ferguson) going down.”
At the plate, Tennessee doesn’t have the power and star power of some of the SEC’s best teams, and while Al Soularie has blossomed into one of the league’s best players, it needs to be a team effort to produce runs.
The Vols have been able to piece together runs this year to win close games and help them reach the level of success that they have. However, if they want to make it farther than anyone outside of the clubhouse suspected they’ll need more guys to step up and get on base.
Tennessee currently has just one player hitting over .280 in conference play, and only two more with at least 20 at-bats hitting over .250. Against Kentucky, many struggling players flipped the switch, for at least one game, and showed what they’re capable of at the plate.
Ricky Martinez will always be in the starting lineup due to his status as one of the conference’s best fielding shortstops, but if he can give the Vols quality plate appearances, like he did early this season and in Friday’s win over Kentucky where the junior went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs, he can elevate the Vols offense to another level.
At the leadoff spot, Jay Charleston has the ability to completely change the game when he can get on base. Despite batting just .228 on the season the junior leads the SEC in stolen bases. His 29 stolen bases are 10 more than Georgia’s Tucker Maxwell who is second in the conference
Power hitting isn’t the strength of this team, but if players with some juice like Justin Ammons, Evan Russell, Zach Daniels, and Pete Derkay, who will be relied on at first base after Ferguson’s injury, can give Vitello the occasional long ball or extra-base hit it could completely change the lineup.
Tennessee isn’t going to get RBIs from 12 different players every weekend, and it certainly won’t score 28 runs against the best the SEC has to offer. If it can just offer moderate support for this pitching and defense the Vols are going to continue to rack up wins.
Tennessee knows it’s going to get high level SEC hitting from Andre Lipcius and Soularie. The X-factor for this team will be whether or not it can get other players to step up and make high level contributions. If it can get that while also continuing to be an opportunistic offense this team could be playing baseball for longer than anyone expected.
