The Tennessee baseball team is at a critical juncture of the season, as they enter the second weekend of April at 4-8 in SEC play. That’s good enough for third worst in the SEC. Even though the season will be just half over after this weekend, it feels like an essential time to start to turn things around if they want to rally back into position to even make the NCAA Tournament.
And it won’t be easy this weekend, as the Vols head to Starkville for a weekend showdown with top 10 Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs have held up their end of high preseason expectations, sitting at 26-7 and 7-5 in SEC play.
Despite Tennessee’s problems last weekend against LSU, the one thing that wasn’t an issue was their starting pitching. As such, the rotation will stay the same way as it was against the Tigers, the school announced on Thursday.
Landon Mack slid up to the Friday night starter last weekend, and he’ll remain there. Tegan Kuhns will start the middle game, and Evan Blanco will handle the finale on Sunday.
Mack (3.48), Blanco (3.83), and Kuhns (3.89) all have managed to keep the Vols’ early and middle innings pretty well handled so far this season, with the exception of an early SEC stretch that saw Brandon Arvidson take over for Kuhns for the Vanderbilt series.
Mack leads the team in strikeouts, but with a WHIP of 1.39, he’s managed to get himself in and out of trouble throughout the season. Kuhns’ 47/8 strikeout to walk ratio has been the best among the trio.
In any event, the Vols have got to get more out of their lineup in key spots and from their bullpen in the late innings moving forward. Otherwise, the starting trio’s numbers will stay pretty while the losses continue to pile up.
