Tennessee baseball’s struggles at Kentucky Proud Park were not anything new.
Inconsistency has hovered over the Vols’ program this season, plagued by an inability to play complementary baseball and a struggling bullpen. After being outscored by 17 runs across the first two games of the weekend at Kentucky, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander didn’t sugarcoat what he saw.
“I just think we’ve gotten beat badly twice in a row,” head coach Josh Elander said after Saturday’s 12-2 run-rule loss in eight innings. “So at this point, there needs to be more sense of urgency and a little bit more pride. Very, very frustrating day all the way around, especially after the performance last night. Have to come into tomorrow and basically throw this game in the trash and reset, and be ready to go and salvage the weekend tomorrow.”
After sweeping Mississippi State on the road, Tennessee responded with a quick series loss to Ole Miss, salvaging a Sunday game to prevent being swept. After Tennessee knocked down Alabama with a dominant doubleheader win a week ago, the Vols had a chance to keep momentum rolling. But instead, the Wildcats mimicked the Rebels, leaving little to be proud of for Elander’s squad.
The problems weren’t isolated to one pitcher or one inning. They stacked, compounded and repeatedly handed the Wildcats free opportunities.
Seven bullpen arms were used over Friday and Saturday. In just four combined relief innings, those arms surrendered nine hits, nine runs, four walks and two hit batters.
“The pen was not good, period,” Elander said Saturday, after six runs crossed the plate in two innings off relief arms. “We didn’t throw strikes, hit batters, walks and then barrels over the plate. So not a good formula in any capacity today.”
Even the starting outings that provided length weren’t enough to prevent innings from unraveling. Tegan Kuhns allowed 10 hits and six earned runs in Friday’s 7-2 loss. Evan Blanco gave up six earned runs across five innings Saturday before the bullpen spiral began.
Still, it was the bullpen that couldn’t hold its own — a consistent theme, backed by free bases.
Taylor Tracey was the first to emerge from the bullpen over the weekend, taking over for Kuhns’ subpar outing. He allowed one hit and walked two batters while pitching to just two outs. That started what was to be a three-run rally in the seventh inning on Friday.
“You just got to go in there and compete,” Elander said. “But when you start giving up free 90 feet, that’s not a good strategy at any point, especially when the wind is blowing out like it was tonight. You get some guys on base and you don’t execute one pitch, it can cost you three runs in a hurry.”
The same issue arose Sunday, albeit a quality start from Landon Mack, whose team held a 7-1 lead when he exited. Once-reliable Cam Appenzeller made his first appearance of the weekend after a midweek start, but even that wasn’t enough to get the stopper back on track.
Appenzeller threw the ball 18 times. He was met with four hits, a hit batter and four earned runs. He was chased out after just two recorded outs, turning to Bo Rhudy. While Rhudy did clean up Appezeller’s seventh-inning mess with a strikeout to strand a runner in scoring position, the Wildcats located his pitches well in the bottom of the ninth.
A Levi Clark three-run blast served as the savior for a Rhudy outing that quickly turned sideways. Kentucky mashed a pair of blasts in the ninth inning to cut the deficit back to a single run, where it was Brandon Arvidson’s turn.
Arvidson put the tying run on base, but a strikeout and a flyout preserved the win.
“We talk about Sunday being important all the time, but you got to stay in it this time of year and control the noise,” Elander said. “And only thing you can worry about is the game right in front of you. We made it clear that those two efforts back-to-back — we can’t do that. That’s not up to the standards of how we play. Able to compete and stay in the fight today. There could have been times where they punch back and all of a sudden you lay down, but phenomenal job by our guys to stay in it throughout the course of entire Sunday.”
Over the three-game set, Tennessee utilized 10 arms out of the bullpen. Those 10 arms walked four batters and plucked three in seven innings of work.
Struggling to open
The Vols were put in a hole from the start, as they have for six of the last seven SEC series. Tennessee has only won two series openers in conference play this season, a 7-4 win at Georgia that turned into a series loss and a win at Mississippi State to aid a sweep.
“At this point in the eighth SEC series of the year, these guys need to know what SEC baseball is about on Friday,” Elander said.
In this season’s conference series openers, Tennessee has scored an average of 4.75 runs per game and allowed 6.88 runs per game. The run shortage shone with just two runs on seven hits in the Vols’ most recent opening loss.
“If you come out and have an offensive approach like that and boot the ball around a little bit and don’t execute pitches, it doesn’t matter where you’re playing or what day, you’re not going to get it done,” Elander said.
Tennessee hosts Texas at Lindsey Nelson Stadium for a three-game set beginning Friday, May 8.
