After not pitching in Tennessee baseball’s midweek win over Bellarmine, talented right-handed pitcher AJ Russell is set to make his SEC season debut this weekend against Kentucky.
Russell has pitched three times this season, including twice in the last three weeks, after undergoing Tommy John surgery in June. All three of Russell’s appearances have come in midweek games to this which will likely change this weekend.
Following the Vols win over Bellarmine Tuesday night, Tony Vitello discussed the plan for Russell’s role this weekend against Kentucky.
“For now, I think it’s a hybrid,” Vitello said of Russell’s role. “It’ll be (a) relief (outing), but I don’t have any intention of bringing him in right in the middle of an inning to start the whole deal. So probably starting an inning.”
Liam Doyle is Tennessee’s Friday night starter and one of the SEC’s best pitchers. Marcus Phillips has been solid on Saturday’s for most of the season but has struggled in each of his last two outings. Freshman Tegan Kuhns has grabbed the reigns on Tennessee’s Sunday starting position and has been good in five SEC starts.
“At this point because the guys have thrown the way that they have, and I know we took Teagan (Kuhns) out earlier last week, but still, if you look at his overall effort in SEC play, he’s earned the right to almost — I won’t say lock down innings — but certainly throw innings for us every weekend,” Vitello said. “And it’ll probably be in a starting fashion. And then Marcus (Phillips) is our guy.”
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Russell was Tennessee’s opening day starter a season ago before suffering the arm injury that eventually led to the Tommy John surgery. He’s a highly talented right-handed arm who has struck out 75 batters in 48.1 career innings pitched.
With a strong back half of the season, Russell could easily be a first round pick in this summer’s MLB Draft. While Russell will be in the bullpen for the time being, he could move to the starting rotation later on as his pitch count goes up and if either Phillips or Kuhns struggle.
Vitello said to expect Russell to throw only one or two innings this weekend against the Wildcats so it’s unlikely to be a splashy SEC debut. But even two innings could go a long way for a Tennessee pitching staff that has been a tad short on reliable arms in SEC play.
“How valuable would three outs have been on Sunday? You know? Or there’s several other games I could bring up too,” Vitello said. “But whether it’s him or (Andrew) Behnke or somebody else, if you can go out there and get us one to three outs, or you get us four outs, that’s a pretty big deal over the course of an SEC weekend, even if it’s in a loss.”
First pitch for Tennessee baseball’s weekend series against Kentucky is at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
