Tennessee baseball is making a change to its weekend rotation ahead of its rivalry series against Vanderbilt this weekend in Nashville. Left-handed pitcher Brandon Arvidson will start on Friday night instead of Tegan Kuhns, Volquest’s Mike Wilson and GoVols247’s Ben McKee first reported.
The rest of the weekend rotation remains the same as it has been to this point in the season with right-handed pitcher Landon Mack starting game two on Saturday and left-handed pitcher Evan Blanco starting game three on Sunday.
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. He’s just six innings away from eclipsing his number of innings pitched as a true freshman a season ago when he spent most the season as Tennessee’s Sunday starter.
It’s a quick hook on 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.
Kuhns was less effective in Tennessee’s series opening loss against Missouri last week, allowing three earned runs in three innings pitched.
Arvidson was the natural choice to move into Tennessee’s weekend rotation. The left-handed pitcher was dominant in long relief to close last season and it was a surprise when he dropped in the MLB Draft and spurned professional baseball for one more season in the collegiate ranks.
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The former junior college transfer 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.
Arvidson was stellar in relief at Georgia, blanking the Bulldogs in 4.1 innings pitched as Tennessee took the series opener in Athens. He struggled last week against Missouri, allowing three runs in four innings pitched.
The Vols have stacked Kuhns and Arvidson so far this season with the left-handed pitcher coming in after the right-handed pitcher in series openers. Tennessee could continue with that same stack but reverse the orders this week in Nashville.
Both Tennessee and Vanderbilt have struggled at times early this season. The Vols enter the weekend series with a 18-7 (3-3 SEC) record. Tennessee dropped two of three games at Georgia the opening weekend of SEC play before winning two of three against Missouri last weekend.
Vanderbilt enters the weekend series 14-12 (2-4 SEC) after Mississippi State swept the Commodores in Starkville last week. The Commodores took two of three games against LSU in their SEC opening series.
First pitch for the weekend series between Tennessee and Vanderbilt is at 8 p.m. ET on Friday night. ESPNU is broadcasting the series opener while the SEC Network is broadcasting game two and ESPN2 is broadcasting the series finale.
