Tennessee baseball heads back on the road this weekend for its final SEC series of the regular season against No. 8 Arkansas.
The Vols are looking to end a four series skid dating back to their road series victory at Ole Miss while Arkansas enters the weekend with an outside shot of winning the SEC Regular-Season Championship. A series victory would go a long way towards Tennessee’s hopes of hosting a regional in the NCAA Tournament. Here’s how to watch and everything else to know about the SEC series.
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How to Watch: No. 17 Tennessee baseball (40-13, 15-11 SEC) at No. 8 Arkansas (411-11, 18-9 SEC)
Game one (Thursday):
First pitch time: 8 p.m ET
Announces: PxP: Tom Hart, CC: Chris Burke and Kyle Peterson
Watch: ESPN2
Game two (Friday):
First pitch time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Announcers: PxP: Tom Hart, CC: Chris Burke
Stream: SEC Network
Game three (Saturday):
First pitch time: 3 p.m. ET
Announcers: PxP: Tom Hart, CC: Chris Burke
Watch: SEC Network
Pitching Matchups
Game one:
Vols RHP Marcus Phillips: 13 GS, 3-4, 3.55 ERA, 63.1 IP, 1.18 WHIP, 77 K, 23 BB
vs.
Razorbacks LHP Zach Root: 13 GS, 6-3, 3.88 ERA, 72 IP, 1.15 WHIP, 98 K, 24 BB
Game two:
Vols LHP Liam Doyle: 13 GS, 9-2, 2.17 ERA, 74.2 IP, 0.80 WHIP, 127 K, 23 BB
vs.
TBD
Game three:
Vols RHP Tegan Kuhns: 8 GS, 2-2, 3.78 ERA, 33.1 IP, 1.44 WHIP, 36 K, 13 BB
vs.
Razorbacks RHP Gage Wood: 6 GS, 1-1, 5.51 ERA, 16.1 IP, 1.12 WHIP, 30 K, 4 BB
Some Changes To Weekend Pitching Order For Both Teams
The series starting on Thursday instead of Friday led to a change for each team when it comes to its weekend pitching staff.
Tennessee ace Liam Doyle will stay in his Friday starting spot with usual game two starter Marcus Phillips starting in the series opener instead. The Vols are playing things safe with Doyle after he threw on both Friday and Sunday two weeks ago against Auburn and after dealing with a blister and bloody finger last week against Vanderbilt.
Arkansas is in a similar boat. Gage Wood has been Arkansas’ game two starter since returning from a shoulder injury earlier in SEC play. The Razorbacks will keep Wood on Saturday while leaving its game two spot open. LHP Landon Beidelschies has been Arkansas’ game three starter. Moving Beidelschies up to game two seems like the most logical solution.
What To Know About Arkansas
Arkansas got off to a strong start to the season losing just one game before the start of SEC play. Conference play has been topsy turvy for the Razorbacks with them losing four of their last five series after winning their first four series of the season.
When Arkansas has won series, they have almost always swept. The Razorbacks have series sweeps against South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Missouri and most impressively Texas two weeks ago in Fayetteville.
Arkansas’ offense has some serious pop, ranking seventh nationally and third in the SEC in slugging percentage. The Aloy brothers have led the way for Arkansas’ offense. Wehiwa Aloy is a SEC Player of the Year candidate and enters the weekend hitting .364 with 17 home runs, 16 doubles and 54 RBIs. Kuhio Aloy is hitting .356 with 13 home runs, 14 doubles and 66 RBIs.
Five Arkansas players have double digit home runs this season with seven players hitting eight-plus home runs. Charles Davalan is hitting .349 with 13 home runs while Cam Kozeal is hitting .340 with 12 home runs.
Arkansas’ pitching staff ranks fifth in the SEC with a 3.96 team-ERA. Dylan Carter (2.23 ERA in 32.1 IP) and Aidan Jimenez (2.51 ERA in 32.1 IP) have been the top arms in Arkansas’ bullpen.
A Quick Prediction
The pitching adjustments for the weekend series set Tennessee up in an even better situation than usual with Liam Doyle on the mound in game two of the weekend set. But can the Vols find a way to win another game and earn a behemoth series victory?
Game one seems like Tennessee’s best chance if the Marcus Phillips that showed up at LSU shows up at Arkansas. The Razorbacks have a solid weekend rotation but no true lockdown man. Still, winning on the road is hard and with its recent struggles its hard to trust Tennessee.
Prediction: Arkansas wins two out of three
