Tennessee baseball pitcher Brayden Krenzel will be out for the entirety of the Kentucky series this weekend in Knoxville with an illness.
Krenzel was revealed as ‘OUT’ for the Vols in the game one SEC availability report, and that will also be the case for games two and three, according to a UT spokesperson.
This is a blow to Tennessee’s weekend pitching plans, specifically for Sunday, as Krenzel has been a key bullpen arm for the Vols over the course of the past month.
Making his SEC debut in late March against Alabama, Krenzel has been the first arm to relieve game three starter Tegan Kuhns each of the past four weekends.
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Krenzel has been incredible in three of four SEC appearances, with his only poor outing coming against Texas A&M (1.0 IP, 4 H, 5 R). Against Alabama, South Carolina and Ole Miss, Krenzel has allowed just four earned runs on 11 hits in 12.0 total innings. Additionally, the Dublin, Ohio native has struck out 15 in those three appearances and walked four.
Krenzel has especially been valuable in high-leverage spots. Tony Vitello often calls upon the talented freshmen with runners on, and Krenzel often rises to the occasion. In fact, he’s stranded the bases loaded twice this season.
The 6-foot-3 right-hander currently owns a 2-0 record on the season with a 4.12 ERA. With the Kuhns-Krenzel Sunday stack no longer an option, Tennessee will be forced to rely more heavily on Nate Snead, Dylan Loy, Tanner Franklin and now AJ Russell out of the bullpen.
