Tennessee baseball heads west on Interstate 40 this weekend to renew its instate rivalry against Vanderbilt at Hawkins Field in Nashville. Both teams have looked shaky early this season and are looking for a crucial conference series win.
Here’s how to watch the three games and more details on the SEC weekend series in Knoxville.
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How To Watch: No. 21 Tennessee baseball (18-7, 3-3 SEC) at Vanderbilt (14-12, 2-4 SEC)
Game one: 8 p.m. ET on Friday, March 27
Announcers — PxP: Tom Hart. Analyst: Chris Burke
Watch: ESPNU
Game two: 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, March 28
Announcers — PxP: Tom Hart. Analyst: Chris Burke
Watch: SEC Network
Game three: Noon ET on Sunday, March 29
Announcers — PxP: Tom Hart. Analyst: Chris Burke
Watch: ESPN2
Vanderbilt Has Struggled Early This Season
In part due to injuries, it’s been a very shaky start to the season for Vanderbilt. The Commodores played in two neutral site tournaments in non conference play and combined to go 1-5 in those games including losses against UC Irvine and Oklahoma State.
The Commodores opened up SEC play strong, taking two out of three games at home against LSU. But things went much worse last weekend at Mississippi State when the Bulldogs swept the three-game series including a run-rule win in game three.
Vanderbilt had lost five straight games before they bounced back with a victory over Tennessee Tech on Tuesday night. The Commodores have been good at home this season with most of their issues coming away from home.
Tennessee Making Change To Its Weekend Rotation
Vanderbilt isn’t the only team looking to figure some things out entering this weekend series. Tennessee is making a change to its weekend rotation, inserting Brandon Arvidson into the Friday night starting role while bumping Tegan Kuhns to the bullpen.
Kuhns has been Tennessee’s game one starter the first six weekends of his sophomore season. He’s posted a 1-2 record, 4.35 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 31 innings pitched.
It’s a quick hook of Kuhns out of the rotation after making just two starts in SEC play. He looked un-hittable for four innings at Georgia but things unraveled for him from there, finishing his outing with four earned runs allowed in 4.2 innings pitched. Then Missouri tagged him for three runs in three innings last weekend in Knoxville.
Arvidson looked every part of a Friday night ace in the fall before preseason arm soreness led to him missing time early in the season. Results have been mixed for Arvidson since he returned to the mound. He’s posted a 3.52 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 15.1 innings pitched this season. He was stellar in a long relief outing against Georgia before struggling against Missouri last week.
Complete Pitching Matchups
Friday:
Vols LHP Brandon Arvidson (1-0, 3.52 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 15.1 IP, 21 K, 5 BB) vs. Commodores RHP Connor Fennell (2-1, 5.74 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 31.1 IP, 43 K, 8 BB)
Saturday:
Vols RHP Landon Mack (3-2, 3.38 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, 32 IP, 39 K, 16 BB) vs. Commodores RHP Wyatt Nadeau (1-1, 3.27 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 22 IP, 29 K, 22 IP)
Sunday:
Vols LHP Evan Blanco (2-2, 2.73 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 33 IP, 44 K, 15 BB) vs TBD
A Quick Prediction
Both teams are desperate for a series win to get on solid footing as we move to the middle part of SEC play. This series feels like a toss up to me. I’m fascinated to see not just how Arvidson does in the Friday night starting role but how Tennessee uses Tegan Kuhns out of the bullpen and how he performs in that role.
Despite losing on the road at Georgia, going on the road does not really worry me with this Tennessee team. But Vanderbilt has been much better at home. That makes me slightly lean Vanderbilt this weekend.
Vanderbilt wins two of three games
