The final home series of the regular season.
Tennessee is set to host their final regular season three-game series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium over the weekend, welcoming in No. 15 Kentucky. If the Volunteers want any hope of hosting a regional in the NCAA Tournament, they’ll likely need to take this series win, at least.
The Volunteers turned a corner a few weeks ago, sweeping Vanderbilt to solidify their NCAA Tournament standing. They backed that up with a sweep of Mississippi State, but road woes popped up once again last week, as Georgia took two out of three.
Tennessee now sits at 33-16 overall, 12-12 in the SEC. Kentucky enters at 34-13 with a 14-10 mark in SEC play. The Wildcats are the top ranked RPI team in the nation entering the weekend.
“A good club,” Tony Vitello said of Kentucky. “No. 1 in the country if you’re going to go off of RPI standards, which obviously carries a lot of weight, so, again, first in the country in that category and therefore in our league, too. A team that will have some familiar faces, but just like every year in our league with the draft and everything else, a lot of turnover. So, some new faces, too. But on offense, they like to bunt, like to run. And a pitching staff that is well coached as well.”
Weekend Schedule
Game 1 – Friday, May 12 (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+)
RHP Andrew Lindsey (0-2, 3.02 ERA) vs. RHP Travis Smith (4-1, 3.62 ERA)
Game 2 – Saturday, May 13 (Noon ET, SEC Network)
RHP Chase Dollander (5-5, 4.26 ERA) vs. LHP Tyler Bosma (4-3, 5.04)
Game 3 – Sunday, May 12 (1 p.m. ET, SEC Network+)
RHP Drew Beam (6-3, 3.97 ERA) vs. RHP Zack Lee (4-2, 3.54)