For the second time this season, Tennessee’s Garrett Stallings has won SEC Pitcher of the Week.
In Stallings’ start last Thursday against No. 15 Ole Miss, the right-hander threw a complete-game shutout in a 7-0 victory. He allowed just four hits, did not allow a walk, and struck out seven as he improved to 8-3 on the season with a 3.12 ERA.
The outing was Stallings’ second complete game shutout of the season. He also shut down No. 2 Georgia in a 3-0 win on April 12th.
As a result of his performance against the Rebels, the SEC announced Stallings as Co-SEC Pitcher of the Week on Monday morning along with Florida starter Jack Leftwich, who also threw a complete-game shutout over the weekend.
Stallings is the third pitcher in program history to earn SEC Pitcher of the Week honors twice in the same season. Luke Hochevar did it in 2005 and James Adkins also did it in 2007.
In 14 starts this season, the Chesapeake, Virginia native has thrown 92.1 innings in 14 starts. Stallings has given up 32 earned runs on 95 hits and has allowed just 13 walks. His 98 strikeouts on the season triple his previous career-high of 39. Opponents are hitting a career-low .261 off of Stallings this season.
Stallings and Tennessee begin postseason play on Tuesday afternoon in Hoover, Alabama. As a nine-seed in the SEC Tournament, the Vols will face eight-seed Auburn at 5:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
Should Tennessee beat Auburn in the single-elimination portion of the tournament, the Vols will advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament where they’ll face No. 1 seed Vanderbilt. First pitch with the Commodores would be at 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Tennessee has not won a game in the SEC Tournament since 2007.
