HOOVER, Ala. — Tennessee baseball ace Liam Doyle will start for the Vols in Thursday’s SEC Tournament Quarterfinals against Texas, head coach Tony Vitello told the media following the Vols’ 15-10 win over Alabama Wednesday afternoon.
Doyle earned SEC Pitcher of the Year honors after posting a 9-3 record, 2.72 ERA and 0.92 WHIP in the regular season. The left-handed ace is the nation’s top strikeout pitcher, sitting down an incredible 137 batters in 79.1 innings pitched while walking just 25 batters.
The hard-throwing lefty is pitching on slightly short rest, pitching in Tennessee’s Friday night loss at Arkansas a week ago. Doyle allowed eight runs (six earned) on 11 hits and three home runs in 4.2 innings pitched a week ago against the Razorbacks.
It was Doyle’s worst outing of the season and he’s looking to bounce back from it against the SEC Regular-Season Champion Texas Longhorns. Since Doyle is on short rest and the highly important NCAA Tournament begins next week, expect it to be at least a slightly shorter outing than normal for Doyle against the Longhorns.
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“I don’t think with him, or maybe some of our other guys in this tournament, we’re looking to win, that’ll be the pursuit that we’re on,” Vitello said Tuesday. “But we’re also not looking to go crazy with pitch counts, in particular with the guys that are on short rest.”
Doyle’s SEC numbers were nearly as good as his overall numbers before a rough regular season finale at Arkansas knocked his conference stats. He finished SEC play with a 6-3 record with a 3.51 ERA, 1.05 WHIP with 90 strikeouts in 59 innings pitched.
The left-handed ace has been a consistent positive for Tennessee the back half of SEC play while the Vols have struggled on the scoreboard. In SEC play, Tennessee was 6-4 in games Doyle started. He threw just one inning in one of the losses before inclement weather delayed the game to the next day.
First pitch between Tennessee and Alabama is at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday afternoon. The SEC Network is broadcasting the game.
