Tennessee baseball was unable to complete the weekend sweep of Wright State, falling to the Raiders 6-0 in Sunday afternoon’s series finale in Knoxville.
It was Tennessee’s first shutout loss since last May’s SEC Tournament and its first home shutout loss since May 2023 against Kentucky. It was also the Vols’ first regular season, non conference shutout loss since Charlotte in 2021.
Here’s how the Vols dropped their series finale against Wright State.
Evan Blanco Was Great Until The Wheels Fell Off In The Sixth Inning
Tennessee starting pitcher Evan Blanco was fantastic for most of his outing. After offering a lead off walk in the first inning, Blanco retired 15 of the next 16 batters he faced while picking up seven strikeouts in the process.
Blanco took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Cam Gilkerson singled to open up the inning and a light rain began. That is when the trouble began. Blanco walked Hunter Warren to put two-on with nobody out and then JP Peltier opened the scoring by roping a two-RBI double to left field.
The left-handed pitcher recorded one more out but then offered another walk before exiting the game. Brady Frederick allowed one of his inherited runs to score. Blanco ended his outing by allowing three earned runs off two hits. It was a disappointing ending to what was looking like a great start.
But it was again the free passes that were Blanco’s issue. He offered three walks and hit another batter. Blanco has offered four free passes in three of his four starts this season.
Tennessee Had No Answers For Wright State Starting Pitcher Chet Lax
Soft tossing left-handed pitcher Chet Lax made his second start and fifth appearance of the season on Sunday afternoon and Tennessee’s offense had no answers for him.
Lax’ fastball sat in the mid-80s but he located it well and gave the Vols’ lineup issues with his off-speed stuff. He struck out just four batters but it mattered little as he didn’t offer up any free passes and Tennessee did not hit the ball particularly hard off of him.
The Hendersonville, Tennessee native pitched seven scoreless innings and allowed just five hits. He threw only 84 pitches in seven innings and 63 were strikes as he made the Vols beat him. They were unable to.
Tennessee has often struggled with soft tossing left-handed pitchers in recent years. But given the competition and this Volunteer offense’s struggles, this was the most notable.
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Tennessee Did Not Give Itself Enough Scoring Opportunities
In its series loss against Kent State, the Vols frequently squandered scoring opportunities. That was not the case against Wright State as Tennessee simply did not give itself enough scoring opportunities.
The Vols put two-on with one-out in the third inning and Henry Ford provided a two-out single to left field but it was not enough to score a run as JP Peltier gunned Levi Clark down at the plate. There’s an argument that Elander should not have sent Clark home, but with the offensive struggles it is hard to blame the aggressive base running.
But after that, Tennessee just did not give themselves many chances to score. Manny Marin had a two-out double in the fifth inning and led off the eighth inning with a single and advanced to second quickly on a wild pitch. Marin was the only bright spot in Tennessee’s lineup, totaling three of the Vols’ six hits.
For the game, Tennessee had just 10 at-bats with a runner on base and only six with a runner in-scoring position. The Vols only put a runner in-scoring position three innings.
Two Long Balls Put The Game Out Of Reach
Tennessee trailed by three runs though seven innings. With its offenses struggles, a comeback seemed unlikely but was still plausible.
But a pair of Wright State long balls put the game out of reach. First, Peltier continued his big day with an eighth inning solo home run off of Brady Frederick. Then in the ninth inning, Zac Butler hit a two-run homer off of Mark Hindy into the second deck of left field porches.
Tennessee’s chances of victory were slim beforehand, but the two home runs put the game away.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee baseball is back in action Tuesday when they face Tennessee Tech in its final matchup before opening up SEC play next weekend at Georgia. First pitch for Tuesday night’s matchup is at 6 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
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