The highly anticipated weekend series between No. 1 Arkansas and No. 5 Tennessee met, and maybe even exceeded, the hype. The Razorbacks stayed unbeaten in weekend series this season, taking two out of three against Tennessee in three games that were decided by one run.
Let’s take a look back at the top five series while looking forward to a road trip to South Carolina to close the regular season.
Three Observations
1 —Tidwell dominates on Sunday— Blade Tidwell had been good in his last two starts entering Sunday’s series rubber match, but the challenge for him this week was far greater.
Combine that with the fact that the freshman struggled in a similar start against Vanderbilt earlier this season and that his breaking ball had been inconsistent, it seemed like Tennessee may need a big Sunday at the plate to beat the Razorbacks.
Instead, Tidwell turned in his best start of his career, despite Tidwell not thinking so because UT lost, allowing two hits, four walks and two runs while recording a career high eight strikeouts in seven innings.
His performance was even better than the numbers indicated though. Arkansas scored its first run thanks to a Brady Slavens bloop double— that probably should have been caught— and a wild pitch that allowed him to reach third and a sac fly to bring him home. The other run came as Tidwell walked the leadoff man in the eighth inning before exiting the game.
Against the best lineup in the SEC, if not the country, Tidwell was just excellent giving Arkansas batters issues three times through the lineup. The freshman got into a groove in the middle of the game, retiring 13 straight batters at one point while touching 98 MPH with his fastball into the fifth inning.
It’s a shame for Tennessee that they weren’t able to capitalize on Tidwell’s outing with a strong day at the plate, and an even bigger shame that Tidwell got the loss, but the freshman’s progression is a great sign for Tennessee.
Tidwell has more talent than any other pitcher on this staff and when he’s pitching well it makes the Vols’ pitching staff significantly more formidable. If he can continue to pitch like he has the last three weeks, Tennessee’s path to Omaha becomes a lot clearer.
2 —Bullpens were the difference this weekend— It wasn’t Chad Dallas’ best start on Friday night but the rest of the weekend Tennessee couldn’t ask for much more from its starting pitching.
On the other side, it wasn’t the best weekend for Arkansas’ starters as Tennessee was able to push Patrick Wicklander from the game in the third inning Friday and Peyton Pallette from the game in the fourth inning Saturday.
The difference in the series was the job of the bullpens.
The Razorbacks got great long middle relief outings from Caden Monke on Friday and Caleb Bolden on Saturday. Monke turned in 3.1 scoreless innings allowing no hits and just one walk while Bolden surrendered one run and three hits in 3.1 innings. Then, Kevin Kopps did what he does and that’s shut things down. Between Friday and Sunday, Kopps turned in 6.2 innings on 125 pitches, allowing just one run and earning the win in both games.
In total, Arkansas’ bullpen surrendered six runs— five of which came Saturday— in a combined 15.2 innings pitched.
Tennessee’s bullpen wasn’t bad, and Sean Hunley was dominant on Friday, but Arkansas was able to have success against it the last two games of the series.
Eight of Arkansas’ 16 runs on the weekend came in the seventh, eighth or ninth inning and the Razorbacks scored runs in seven of those nine innings.
Five times this weekend a Tennessee reliever entered in the middle of an inning with a runner on-base. A run scored in four of those five scenarios. Going forward, Tennessee has to be better in those situations.
In total, Tennessee’s bullpen gave up five runs in 9.2 innings pitched.
3 —Savor every moment of this season and this team— For the first time this season, Tennessee fans were able to pack Lindsey Nelson Stadium and watch the top five team Tony Vitello has built.
Tennessee gave its fans something to cheer about early in all three games— five runs in the first inning Friday, two runs in the first inning Saturday and a 9-2 double play to end the top of the first inning Sunday— and the fans didn’t let their guard down, bringing the intensity for a full 27 innings.
Time will tell on whether Tony Vitello sticks in Knoxville for the long haul and what Lindsey Nelson Stadium looks like in a few years, but Tennessee fans should soak up and enjoy every pitch of this season.
It’s not that Tennessee won’t have more great teams and won’t be back in the top five again with Vitello. If Vitello is here for the long haul I’d be surprised if this is his best team, but what this team has done and the moments they’ve provided this fanbase has been breathtaking.
Just this year at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Tennessee has a walk off home run against ETSU, a come from behind extra innings win over LSU capped off by a Drew Gilbert walk off homer, two three home runs games from Evan Russell— including a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning against Vanderbilt, and now a three-run walk off home run from Max Ferguson to beat the number one team in the country.
Those are truly special moments that good teams maybe get one of in a given season. Tennessee has had four moments like that and they have all been in the biggest moments and come from behind fashion— besides the ETSU win.
This team clearly loves playing together, loves playing for the University of Tennessee and has provided some unbelievable moments. No matter what the future holds for Tennessee baseball, soak in this team, they’re special.
Two Questions
1. Where does Tennessee’s championship hunts stand?
Tennessee entered the weekend tied with Arkansas for the top spot in the SEC. After dropping two out of three to the Razorbacks, Tennessee sits 18-9 in SEC play, one game behind 19-8 Arkansas in the top spot.
With Arkansas having the tiebreaker over the Vols, Tennessee’s chances of its first SEC Championship since 1995 look slim. UT will need a series sweep over South Carolina and for Florida to win two out of three in Fayetteville.
Thanks to some help from Ole Miss, Tennessee didn’t lose any ground in the SEC East title hunt this week as Vanderbilt dropped two out of three to the Rebels.
Tennessee enters the final SEC weekend with a 0.5 game lead over Vanderbilt (17-9 SEC) but the Vols are far from having things wrapped up. Vanderbilt hosts Kentucky this weekend and has a golden sweep opportunity.
Tennessee could stay at the top spot with a series win, but if they don’t want to rely on help from Kentucky the Vols will have to sweep South Carolina.
It’s not a championship but when it comes to locking up a top-four seed and first round bye in the NCAA Tournament, Tennessee is sitting in a good spot. The Vols have a one game lead over both Mississippi State and Florida and just need to finish tied with the Gators to clinch a top-four seed.
2. Does Tony Vitello settle on nine guys?
Connor Pavolony returned to the starting lineup for Tennessee on Saturday against Arkansas, making the Vols’ lineup completely healthy entering the final week of the regular season. It didn’t take Pavolony long to get going offensively as he went 4-of-8 at the plate this weekend with a pair of RBIs.
Tennessee’s lineup is starting to come into form as Max Ferguson stays hot and Jordan Beck continues to stay disciplined at the plate and showcase his power. The players that were underachieving earlier in the season are no longer doing so and the results have shown it the past few weeks.
Tony Vitello has found its core lineup over the past few weeks and with Pavolony back in the lineup all the pieces fit together.
The eight position players all seemed locked into starting spots and I wouldn’t expect any of them to be out of the lineup after the Belmont game Tuesday.
The only spot Vitello could still tinker with is the designated hitter spot. Pete Derkay has been streaky all season and I wonder if Vitello handles that spot by committee. Jackson Greer, Kyle Booker and even Logan Steenstra all could factor and earn designated hitter starts down the stretch.
One Prediction
Vols win two out of three in Columbia
South Carolina entered this weekend reeling, having lost six of its last eight games including five of six in SEC play. However, the Gamecocks bounced back this weekend sweeping Kentucky in dominant fashion, outscoring the Wildcats 32-12.
Suddenly, the Gamecocks appear to be back in the hunt to host a regional and will have everything to play for this weekend.
Still, it's a South Carolina team that’s had inconsistent starting pitching and has been a bit home run dependent offensively.
This Tennessee team showed that it can beat anyone in the country this weekend. I think they keep that success going and win two out of three in Columbia but leave needing some help from Kentucky to win the SEC East.
