Tennessee baseball is coming off its best weekend of the season, going on the road and sweeping then-No. 9 Mississippi State. The Vols had lost a number of close games over the previous two weeks before flipping the script and earning two tight wins.
Head coach Josh Elander said Sunday that he hopes the series will be a turning point for this team and it very well could be. Here’s four takeaways from the series.
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Tennessee’s Approach At The Plate Was Much Improved
The most frustrating part of Tennessee’s offense this season has been the often poor approach. Players trying to do too much in any individual at-bat leading to short plate appearances with lots of soft contact.
But Tennessee flipped the script this weekend. There’s no stats to quantify this but they seemed to work better at-bats while hitting more line drives and hitting the ball to the opposite field more in general.
Maybe this is too anecdotal but it also showed itself in Tennessee’s ability to execute in situational baseball. The Vols got runs home from third with less than two outs. They had successful safety squeezes and clutch two-out hitting. Perhaps Sunday’s game was the greatest example as the Vols stranded just two runners on base.
Underclassmen Produced At The Plate
Tennessee’s offense had more success this weekend despite the stars at the top and middle of the lineup not having stellar weekends. Instead, the Vols underclassmen produced at the plate.
Freshman Trent Grindlinger has recently earned a consistent starting spot at designated hitter and he ran with the increased opportunity over the weekend. Grindlinger went five-for-11 over the weekend with an additional walk.
The sophomore class that has largely underperformed this season also delivered. Manny Marin totaled five hits including a double and was the greatest example of hitting the ball the other way.
Levi Clark went three-for-12 but one of his hits was a home run and the other was a clutch two-RBI double to provide ninth inning insurance in Sunday’s series finale. Jay Abernathy had just two hits in SEC play entering the weekend before totaling three hits on Saturday.
Of all the good signs from the weekend, none were better than the success of Tennessee’s underclassmen hitters.
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Tennessee’s Pitching Showed Why They Could Be A Difficult Out
As Tennessee struggled the first half of SEC play, its pitching consistently put them in positions to have success. That was no different this weekend when Mississippi State scored just nine runs over the course of the weekend.
Few teams have five pitchers as effective as Tennessee’s Landon Mack, Tegan Kuhns, Evan Blanco, Brandon Arvidson and Cam Appenzeller. The Vols have three starting pitchers who have consistently been solid at getting them into the middle of the game. Then Arvidson and Appenzeller can each shoulder anywhere between three to five innings of relief themselves every weekend.
The problem for Tennessee has been the lack of reliability past that. If any of those pitchers struggle, they haven’t had enough consistent answers to pick them up. The Vols got to the finish line Sunday thanks to a strong Bo Rhudy outing but the bullpen depth remains a question.
But when Tennessee’s top five pitchers all have it, this team is going to be tough to score against. That makes them dangerous in a NCAA Tournament regional.
This Weekend Changed The Outlook For Tennessee’s Postseason Hopes
Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, this weekend did wonders for Tennessee’s hopes of making it. Now at the halfway point in SEC play, the Vols are 7-8 in conference play. Tennessee needs to get to at least 13 SEC wins to feel good about its chances to make the NCAA Tournament. They would safely be in with 14 wins.
If Tennessee gets to 15 or 16 wins then they will be in the conversation to host a regional. The fact that hosting a regional is back in play indicated how successful a weekend it was in Starkville. And at the very least, making the tournament looks much more likely now compared to last week.
In the back half of SEC play, the Vols host Ole Miss, Alabama and Texas while traveling on the road to face Kentucky and Ole Miss.
