IBTIT: Tennessee Vols vs. LSU Tigers Baseball Series Preview (April 12, 13, 14)

It's Baseball Time in Tennessee

Recently: It’s been a week since Tennessee (27-6, 7-5 SEC) has played the full nine innings of a baseball game. Tuesday’s 20-2 win over Alabama A&M was run-ruled in seven, just like Saturday’s (12-2) and Sunday’s (19-5) wins over Auburn on the Plains. The Vols have been bombing the ball of late, hitting 16 home runs over the course of the last week, with 14 coming in that Auburn series—especially impressive since two of those games were shortened. Meanwhile LSU (22-12, 3-9 SEC) won their midweek game against McNeese 16-0, but the Tigers have struggled to live up to last year’s national championship squad. They have a RPI of 46 and a 7-10 record against quadrant 1 & 2 teams and have dropped out of the polls entirely. The Tigers have not won a SEC series this season, but the schedule hasn’t been kind either, with LSU facing Florida, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt the last three weekends heading into this series with the Vols.

Previously on Vols vs. Tigers: Tennessee has been pretty successful against LSU over the past three seasons with a 7-4 record against LSU, including a 3-2 postseason record vs. the Tigers. Unfortunately, those two losses came in last year’s College World Series with LSU eliminating UT in Omaha. Still, Tennessee has shown marked improvement against LSU since Tony Vitello took over in Knoxville, as the Vols were just 2-12 in the 14 games previous to Vitello, with an overall 29-63 deficit in the series all-time.

• Chris Stamos has since been named the Friday starter for UT. Stamos has not started this year but has picked up three wins in relief for the Vols.

• Blake Burke’s 41st career home run against Auburn on Saturday pushed him to the top of UT’s career HR list, ahead of Luc Lipcius. Burke also has a 23-game hit streak, chasing Condridge Holloway’s school record of 27 games.

• Christian Moore also blasted three HRs in Tennessee’s onslaught against Auburn, putting him in a tie with Lipcius at 40 career homers.

• LSU 1B Jared Jones has been acquainted with the longball too, tying the school record with three HRs in the midweek win over McNeese. Jones leads the Tigers with 14 HR and 34 RBI this season.

• Friday’s starter for the Tigers is RHP Luke Holman, who lead LSU to one of their few SEC wins last weekend against Vandy. Holman is 6-1 on the season, holding opposing batters to a .174 batting average.

That brings us to the intrigue of Friday’s matchup. Tennessee has struggled to open series the last two weekends. Something had to change in the pitching rotation, and with Saturday/Sunday pitching working so well of late, it wasn’t going to be about changing those slots. Now the question becomes can Chris Stamos and the UT bullpen get enough support from a Vol offense that has been a buzzsaw lately, but faces the ace of LSU’s staff and one of the few bright spots for the Tigers this season? The predicted RPI says yes:

Which is wild to think about when coming into the season the question would’ve been more along the lines of “can Tennessee defend LNS and win the series against the defending national champs?” and not “can Tennessee sweep LSU?” But here we are, and not only is a series win the most likely outcome for the Vols, but if the Vols can fix their Friday night pitching issues, a series sweep is very much in play.