By BILLY DIXON
The 10th seeded Tennessee Volunteers saw their stay in the SEC baseball tournament come to an end on Wednesday evening, falling to Arkansas 8-4 at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
It went wrong for the Vols (38-20) from the jump. Throwing on five days rest, Evan Blanco was no mystery to the Razorbacks who jumped on him for four runs in the first. Three of the runs came courtesy of monster blasts from Camden Kozeal and Zack Stewart. Both balls traveled in excess of 420 feet. Stewart added a second blast in the third that exited the ballpark at 116 mph.
In all, Blanco lasted just three innings, allowing five runs on seven hits.
Tennessee tried to make a game of it, chipping away with two runs in the fourth inning on a bloop double by Blaine Brown, and one more in the 5th when Henry Ford laced a double down the left field line to plate Garrett Wright.
The Hogs weren’t done scoring, however. After Chandler Day walked back to back hitters to open the bottom half of the frame, Ethan Baiotto served up TJ Pompey on a platter, ending in another long home run to push the lead back out to five.
The Vols managed one more in the seventh on a Blake Grimmer double to score Jay Abernathy, but they had nothing left to counter Arkansas pitching.
Four Hogs hurlers scattered 8 hits and struck out 10 Vols.
The four Razorback home runs traveled 1,736 feet.
Despite the struggles, Tennessee did get 3 2/3 of quality relief innings from Nick Abraham, Mark Hindy, and Bo Rhudy.
What’s next?
The loss leaves the Vols looking toward Selection Monday. They WILL get an invite and certainly as a No. 2 seed , the only remaining question is where will the committee send them.
I’m not sure Tennessee deserves a higher RPI ranking than 28th, but when you look at the numbers, its hard to justify being that low. Despite having 38 wins, a 12-10 record against Quad 1 opponents, a 10-8 mark against currently ranked teams, and a 16-12 record over teams currently projected to be in the tourney, they are ranked behind the likes of Coastal Carolina (36-20, 7-7 vs. quad 1 opponents), Missouri State (32-18, 4-8 Q1), Mercer (43-13, 1-7 Q1), Virginia (36-20, 7-9 Q1), Oklahoma (32-21, 7-13 Q1 and Vols took series), and Wake Forest (38-18, 5-14 Q1). For good measure, despite a weak non-conference schedule, Tennessee still holds the 30th ranked strength of schedule … better than 13 of the 27 teams in front of them.
Once you get into the top 16 teams and projected regional hosts, its hard to find someone for the Vols to replace, but they are close and should be at worst one of the top two seeds in whatever region where they are assigned.
Their likely destination will be Georgia Tech or North Carolina (with a possibility of Southern Miss). All three are good teams, but clearly you want to go to Hattiesburg to play in a bracket with the Golden Eagles. Between the Yellow Jackets and Tar Heels, its a coin flip. Tech is perhaps the best hitting team in the country with a .358 batting average and 114 home runs. Their home park is a launching pad. Carolina has one of the top pitching staffs in the country, posting a 3.73 ERA.
The only advantage to this scenario is if the Vols could pull off a regional title, they would be paired against a lower seeded team – one that could possibly get upset in their regional, giving the Vols a chance to host a super regional.
Looking back at Wednesday’s loss, I’m left questioning head coach Josh Elander and staff’s decision to start Evan Blanco.
Simply stated, they put one of the team’s two reliable pitchers in danger for a game that really meant nothing. Blanco threw 99 pitches on Friday. You have to figure the reason they didn’t go with ace Tegan Kuhns is because he would’ve been pitching on six days’ rest in back-to-back weeks. That makes it inexplicable as to why they would run Blanco out there so soon.
The crafty senior Blancu had nothing. His fastball lacked zip and his breaking ball lacked bite. Arkansas ripped almost everything he threw. This also makes it readily apparent that No. 3 starter Landon Mack is done for the season. It’s just my read on the situation and there’s nothing official, but if he could throw at all, he would have yesterday or today.
The team made a point of noting that Mack was considered a day-to-day decision, made the trip and was on the active roster for the tournament, but in reality, there is no one they would have brought with them instead.
With nothing official announced, maybe we’ll see him next week. But don’t count on it. That’s a big blow to Vols chances of advancing.
The same might be true for senior right fielder Reese Chapman.
Chapman was injured in a freak accident in Monday’s tournament practice session. Reports are, he took a line drive to the face and bones were broken. He apparently spent Monday night in a local hospital before being sent back to Knoxville to be evaluated. When Stone Lawless was hit in the face by a pitch at Vanderbilt – also breaking bones – he missed just over three weeks before returning.