The pitching matchups are set for Tennessee baseball’s SEC Tournament opener against Vanderbilt.
RHP Nate Snead (8-1, 2.67 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) is starting for Tennessee while LHP Devin Futrell (1-1, 7.71 ERA, 1.84 WHIP) is starting for Vanderbilt.
Snead has been one of Tennessee’s best bullpen arms all season but is making his first start of the season for the Vols. He’s worked in an abundance of long relief appearances this season and is third on the team with 57.1 innings pitched over the course of the season.
Futrell has battled injuries this season and the talented pitcher has had mixed results on the mound over the course of the season. The left-handed pitcher was fantastic against Tennessee in the Commodores 3-0 series finale win in Nashville allowing just one hit in three scoreless innings pitched.
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Snead was also effective in that series. He came in to get the final two outs of Tennessee’s series clinching win on Saturday— stranding the tying run at second— before pitching 4.1 scoreless innings of relief in the series finale a day later.
Tennessee’s tall right-handed pitcher last saw the mound on Saturday afternoon when he threw 22 pitches against South Carolina. Futrell pitched on Saturday as well where he threw 61 pitches in 2.2 innings pitched. On such a short turnaround, Futrell likely can’t pitch an abundance of innings for the Commodores.
Snead likely won’t go super deep into the game either as Tennessee looks to get innings for a number of arms in its two guaranteed games. Star pitcher AJ Russell is poised to make his return this week at the SEC Tournament and it could very well come against the Commodores.
First pitch between Tennessee and Vanderbilt is at 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening. SEC Network is broadcasting the game.
