Tennessee baseball picked up its first series win of the season over the weekend, winning two of three games at home against Missouri. Combined with the Vols’ midweek win over Eastern Kentucky, it was a 3-1 week as the Vols improved to 17-7 (3-3 SEC) on the season.
Josh Elander’s first Tennessee team dropped the series opener against Missouri 8-4 as the Tigers scored three runs off Vols’ ace Tegan Kuhns in just three innings. With its back against the wall, Tennessee responded by winning game two 4-2 and game three 7-1.
Landon Mack had a solid start Saturday but did not get very deep in the game. Freshman left-handed pitcher Cameron Appenzeller stepped up by allowing just three baserunners and zero runs in 4.2 innings of relief. Sunday starter Evan Blanco turned in the best outing of his season on Sunday, allowing just one run in 7.2 innings pitched.
At the plate, both Stone Lawless and Levi Clark had really nice weekends. Lawless went four-for-eight at the plate with three doubles, a home run and two walks. Clark started two games, reaching base three times and hitting a home run. Garrett Wright and Reese Chapman both hit over .300 on the week while Wright and Blaine Brown hit home runs.
Tennessee is back in action with four more games this week. The Vols face USC Upstate in a midweek game Tuesday night before traveling to Nashville to face rival Vanderbilt in a three-game series at Hawkins Field.
The Vols mostly moved up in the rankings this week but stayed put in a one ranking. Here’s where Tennessee ranks entering the final week of March.
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D1Baseball
- This week: No. 21
- Last week: No. 22
Baseball America
- This week: No. 20
- Last week: No. 23
USA Today Coaches Poll
- This week: No. 21
- Last week: No. 23
Perfect Game
- This week: No. 21
- Last week: No. 21
NCBWA
- This week: Not yet updated
- Last week: Not ranked
