Tennessee baseball is again mixing up its weekend pitching rotation ahead of this weekend’s series against LSU at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Right-handed pitcher Landon Mack will start Friday night’s opener against the Tigers, right-handed pitcher Tegan Kuhns will start Saturday and left-handed pitcher Evan Blanco will start Sunday, a source told RTI.
It’s the second straight weekend that Tennessee has mixed up its starting rotation. The Vols deployed the same pitching rotation the first six weekends of the season with Kuhns starting on Friday, Mack starting on Saturday and Blanco starting on Sunday.
But last weekend first-year head coach Josh Elander mixed things up, pulling Kuhns from the weekend rotation and instead inserting left-handed pitcher Brandon Arvidson as Tennessee’s Friday night starter.
Despite Vanderbilt sweeping Tennessee, the move worked well on Friday night. Arvidson allowed two runs in five innings pitched. Kuhns relieved Arvidson and turned in his best performance of SEC play, allowing one earned run in 4.1 innings pitched as Vanderbilt defeated the Vols 3-2 in 10 innings.
Kuhns is back in the weekend rotation after finding his footing against the Commodores, but this time as the Saturday starter. Mack, who’s posted a 3-2 record and 3.89 ERA this season, is moving into the Friday night starting spot for the first time this season.
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It’s a similar track to what Mack followed last season at Rutgers when he began the season as the Scarlett Knights’ Saturday started before moving into the Friday night role down the stretch of the season.
Arvidson has been one of Tennessee’s best pitchers this season, posting a 3.54 ERA in 20.1 innings pitched. The benefit of using Arvidson out of the bullpen is that they could potentially use him twice in the same weekend.
Freshman Cameron Appenzeller has been stellar for Tennessee this season. He hasn’t allowed a single run in 13.1 innings pitched in SEC play. Over the course of the season, Appenzeller has a 1.37 ERA in 26.1 innings pitched.
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.
