Tennessee’s baseball team went 4-0 on the week, including a sweep of a 2018 NCAA Tournament team in Indiana. Let’s look back at the successful week and look forward to a busy week for the Vols as they play two midweek games and hit the road next weekend.
Three Observations
1. - Let’s talk about the Vols hot start- Tennessee is off to a 7-0 start, the programs best since 2014 when the Vols started 12-0. Tennessee is outscoring opponents 50-5 and has struck out 89 batters.
While the start is promising it isn’t rare for the struggling program.
Tennessee started 15-1 in 2014 and even took two out of three over Missouri to open conference play before struggling the rest of the season, posting a 12-18 SEC record and missing the SEC Tournament.
Tennessee started hot again in 2017, posting a 12-2 record prior to the start of conference play. The Vols were dreadful in SEC play, going 7-21. Dave Serrano was fired after the year and John Currie pegged Tony Vitello as his successor.
Worth noting is that the Vols' opening weekend opponent, Appalachian State, ranked 294 out of 297 in runs scored last season by division one teams.
Indiana is no slouch though, the Hoosiers have consistently been one of the best teams in the Big Ten and made the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Hoosiers were without one of its best bats this weekend in preseason All- American Matt Gorski but holding Indiana to just five runs is an impressive feat.
Also, don’t discount the Vols’ performance Sunday. Tennessee couldn’t get anything going for the first three innings and were facing their first deficit of the year, but the Vols came back and pulled off the win.
2. Garrett Stallings looks like a different pitcher- Stallings was a fine pitcher in 2018, but not much more. The Chesapeake, Virginia native posted a 4.58 ERA in his 16 appearances, 11 of which were starts.
Stallings worked hard this offseason to develop a better off-speed pitch, and he’s greatly improved his game.
The junior has only allowed one run and six hits in 14 inning of work so far this season. Maybe most impressively is that after two starts Stallings is almost halfway to the number of strikeouts he had last year.
Stallings only struck out 37 batters in his 2018 campaign but after two starts this season he’s already tallied 17.
Going into the season Stallings career high was five strikeouts, he posted eight on opening day against Appalachian State and nine Friday against Indiana.
If Tennessee has the success they are hoping to have against a stacked SEC, Stallings keeping them in games on Friday nights is going to be one of the main reasons why.
3. -The new turf field- Despite how well the Vols have been playing to open up the year, I think the MVP of the season so far has been the turf.
It has been a rainy first ten days of the season and Tennessee would likely have only played three games this season if it weren’t for the artificial field.
The $1.25 million project appears to be worth the money. Despite flooding in the region Saturday, Tennessee’s field held up great. The game had to be delayed a couple of hours but there were no puddles and they played a full nine innings.
Some people won’t like the turf field but it’s been remarkably valuable so far this season. The only real complaint any player or coach has had is how difficult it is to stop sliding when the surface is wet.
Instead of heading to Pensacola next weekend with only a few games under its belt, Tennessee will be a team that’s played a full schedule and has great confidence.
Two Questions
How do they handle Liberty Tuesday?
Most midweek baseball games are a chance to give some young players some experience while also tallying an easy win.
However, Liberty will be far from a cupcake game. The Flames are 5-2 to start the year and outscoring opponents 48- 29.
Liberty picked up a win over South Carolina opening weekend and was competitive throughout the series.
The Flames also defeated Wake Forest last week before sweeping Delaware last weekend.
Clearly, the Vols will have a challenge on its hand Tuesday night.
I’d expect freshman All- American Sean Hunley to get the start for the Vols, but I’ll be interested to see how many young bats Tennessee puts in the lineup Tuesday.
With another game Wednesday against MTSU I’d expect Vitello to start most of the weekend lineup against the Flames as the Vols go for win number eight.
What does Vitello do with Garrett Crochet
Sophomore Garrett Crochet is another Vols’ pitcher that has been greatly improved from 2018.
As a freshman Crochet had a 5.51 ERA in his 17 appearances and was used both as a starter and a reliever.
So far this season Crochet has been used twice in long term relief situations. He pitched four innings to end the game against Appalachian State and 5.1 innings against Indiana Sunday.
The tall lefty has only allowed one run and two hits, while striking out 18 batters.
Tony Vitello seems content with keeping Crochet in the bullpen for now but didn’t completely rule out Crochet starting.
“Not at this point,” Vitello said when asked about moving Crochet to the starting rotation. “He’s such a valuable weapon because of his experience last year as a swingman, so if we do choose to start him at any point I know he’ll be comfortable doing so
Tennessee doesn’t appear to have any permanent roles in the bullpen at the moment, but they do appear to want to work Crochet, Redmond Walsh, and Chase Wallace as the main guys out of the pen.
One Prediction
Andre Lipcius has a big week
Andre Lipcius had a breakout year for the Vols in 2018. The sophomore hit .315 with seven home runs and 42 RBIs.
The junior was expected to be Tennessee’s best hitter this year but has had a tough start. Lipcius is only hit 3-for-26 so far this season.
I don’t think the situation is as bad as the numbers make it seem though. Lipcius is hitting the ball hard but just can’t seem to find the gaps. Lipcius hit four hard balls directly at defenders Saturday, and only has struck out once this year.
Lipcius also had the biggest hit of the series against Indiana, when his one-out double drove in three runners and gave Tennessee a 4-3 lead over Indiana in the fifth inning Sunday.
Lipcius spirits were high when he talked to the media Sunday and Vitello doesn’t seem to worried about his lack of production.
“He’s found as many barrels as anyone on the team,” Vitello said. “The law of percentages are going to even out.”
