Tennessee baseball is sticking with the same weekend pitching rotation that is deployed last week against Kentucky as they prepare to host No. 4 Texas at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Right-handed pitcher Tegan Kuhns will start in Friday night’s series opener, left-handed pitcher Evan Blanco will start game two on Saturday and right-handed pitcher Landon Mack will start game three on Sunday.
Starting arms for this weekend’s series vs. Texas ⬇️#GBO🍊 pic.twitter.com/BWXlpWY01v
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) May 7, 2026
The Vols have started the trio of Kuhns, Blanco and Mack in seven of their first eight SEC series but the order has oft changed. Kuhns began SEC play as the Friday starter before Mack moved to Friday and Kuhns eventually moved to Saturday.
Tennessee made another change last week, moving the red-hot Kuhns back to Friday while the struggling Mack moved to Sunday and Blanco moved to Saturday for the first time all season.
The move had mostly negative results as Kentucky tagged Kuhns for six earned runs in six innings pitched on Friday. Blanco then turned in one of his worst starts of the season on Saturday, allowing six earned runs in five innings pitched.
The positive was Mack’s outing, bouncing back by allowing just one earned run in six innings pitched as Tennessee salvaged the series with a game three victory.
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While making a change to the weekend rotation remained possible, it would be difficult for Tennessee to shorten rest for some pitchers with a short week looming before the Vols travel to Oklahoma for their regular season finale series.
“I think the one thing, just to be overly honest, is (we) have to be cognizant of the next week (Thursday-Saturday series at Oklahoma) with that would bounce guys back up again another day, if we did make some changes,” Tennessee head coach Josh Elander said Tuesday. “So we’ll dive into that. But again, I’m excited to see Tegan, Blanco. It’ll be those three in some capacity, for sure, but excited to see how some of those guys bounce back. And then it was good to see Mack make some adjustments and have some success up there in Lexington.”
Starting pitching has been a strength for Tennessee this season. But as a team, the Vols have badly struggled in series openers in SEC play. Tennessee is just 2-6 in SEC series openers entering this weekend’s series against Texas.
With two series remaining, Tennessee boasts an 11-13 SEC record. The Vols need at least two more SEC wins to feel good about their NCAA Tournament hopes entering the SEC Tournament.
First pitch for Tennessee’s series opener against Texas is at 6 p.m. ET on Friday night. The SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
