Tennessee baseball could be making another change to its weekend pitching rotation ahead of this weekend’s series against LSU. First-year head coach Josh Elander did not say that any decisions had been made but indicated that a change could be coming when he met with the media following the Vols’ midweek win over Austin Peay.
“(Pitching coach Josh) Reyn(olds) and I will talk about it tomorrow,” Elander said. “I would imagine it will change a little bit. We’ve talked about our challenge right now has been how do we finish games better? We’re right there in a lot of these games. And, again, you can go match up, you can go make up, you can look at numbers and a lot of different things. But I do think we’ll end up changing it a little bit.”
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So what could Elander and his staff have up their sleeve this time? Maybe Tennessee moves Kuhns back to the weekend starting rotation, but it seems more likely that freshman Cam Appenzeller could make the first start of his career.
Appenzeller has been Tennessee’s best pitcher the first three weeks of SEC play, shutting out opponents in 13.1 innings pitched. The left-handed pitcher has also posted an incredibly impressive 0.68 WHIP.
The Illinois native has pitched in extended outings on Saturday in SEC play. Much like they did last weekend, Tennessee could simply flip Appenzeller and current Saturday starter Landon Mack.
The one setback with that plan is that would then make all three of Tennessee’s weekend starting pitchers lefties. Appenzeller could start on Sunday instead of left-handed pitcher Evan Blanco if the Vols want to avoid three left-handed pitchers starting in three days.
Tennessee is looking to get back on track this weekend when they host LSU in a three-game series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols are 3-6 in SEC play so far this season with Vanderbilt sweeping the Vols in a three-game series in Nashville last weekend.
First pitch for the weekend series between Tennessee and LSU is at 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday evening. Two of the three games are on ESPN networks with Mike Monaco, Kyle Peterson and Chris Burke are on the call.
