Suddenly, Tennessee baseball has dropped four of its last five series. The one time No. 1 team in the land desperately needs a good weekend in Knoxville with tournament season quickly approaching. Tennessee is still projected to host in the regional round, but a series win here against No. 10 Vanderbilt would go a long way towards solidifying that.
Baseball America has Tennessee slotted in the No. 10 national seed going into the weekend. D1 Baseball has the Volunteers as the No. 9. On3 Sports is the lowest on Tennessee, projecting them to land as the No. 14 national seed.
Tennessee will finish the regular season with a series at Arkansas next weekend.
Tennessee and Vanderbilt are tied for fifth in the SEC standings, both entering at 14-10 in conference play. The ‘Dores come to Knoxville coming off of a big series win over Alabama last weekend. Vanderbilt is 8-7 on the road this season, and they’ll be looking to fix their recent Knoxville woes over the next few days.
One note on the projected starters this weekend — AJ Russell is not announced as the Sunday starter. He had a rough outing getting back into SEC play last Sunday against Auburn, and it remains to be seen what Tennessee does on Sunday afternoon on the mound. Tegan Kuhns or Nate Snead could get the nod.
Tennessee-Vanderbilt baseball series schedule
Game 1: Friday (5:30 pm ET): SEC Network
Tennessee: LHP Liam Doyle (12 GS, 8-2, 2.39 ERA)
Vanderbilt: LHP JD Thompson (12 GS, 4-4, 3.95 ERA)
Game 2: Saturday (5 pm ET): ESPN 2
Tennessee: RHP Marcus Phillips (12 GS, 3-3, 3.02 ERA)
Vanderbilt: RHP Cody Bowker (12 GS, 2-4, 4.50 ERA)
Game 3: Sunday (3 pm ET): ESPN 2
Tennessee: TBA
Vanderbilt: RHP Connor Fennell (6 GS, 5-0, 3.20 ERA)