The road to Omaha is set to begin for Tennessee baseball.
The Vols open the Chapel Hill regional with a matchup vs. ECU at Boshamer Stadium on Friday. Tennessee (38-20) will roll with senior lefty Evan Blanco to open the festivities, while the Pirates (36-22-1) will turn to Ryan Towers in the opener. While the Vols enter the tournament as an at-large team, the Pirates come to Chapel Hill as champions of the AAC.
While rookie skipper Josh Elander has guided Tennessee into the big dance in his first season, veteran head coach Cliff Godwin has led ECU to the NCAA tournament for the 10th time since taking the helm in 2015. Under Godwin’s leadership, the Pirates have four times reached the NCAA Super Regionals, making them a tough out in the opening stanza of the postseason.
How to watch Tennessee baseball
First pitch is set for 12 p.m. on Friday, and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
Mike Monaco will handle play-by-play duties for that broadcast, while Ben McDonald will join him as the color analyst. For the Tennessee radio broadcast, long-time voice of Vol baseball, John Wilkerson, will conduct the play-by-play responsibilities. The radio feed is available on the Vol Radio Network, FM 99.1/ AM 990, and the stream can also be found on UTSports.com.
Clean start
It has been a rocky road for Blanco of late. The veteran was chased after three innings in the Vols’ SEC tournament loss to Arkansas, a start in which he gave up five runs on seven hits.
The primary issue for the lefty has been the first inning. In his last three starts, he has given up ten runs total in the opening frame, each time putting Tennessee at a quick deficit.
He has been a steady presence in the weekend rotation, and many times he has battled back to work five or six innings to give the offense a chance. Further, Elander cited Blanco’s experience in the NCAA tournament as to why he elected to give his senior the ball to begin the regional. Tennessee will need a clean start from their starter in order to set the tone for the weekend, and that would start with a tidy first inning from Blanco.
Bombs away
Tennessee digs the longball.
The Vols ripped 111 homers on the season, which was seventh most in the nation. This also put them over the 100 home run plateau for the fifth consecutive season, which broke an SEC record for consecutive seasons with 100-plus team home runs.
Henry Ford leads the charge with 19 blasts, while Blaine Brown and Levi Clark are tied for second with 13 longballs apiece. Factor in Blake Grimmer’s 12 homers, and that’s a total of 57. That group of four on their own has out-homered ECU as a team, which sits at 56 for the season.
While the Vols are capable of piecing together rallies without the big blast, they could certainly use a homer or two to power them ahead.
Pitching probables
LHP Evan Blanco: 7-4, 4.94 ERA
LHP Ryan Towers: 7-3, 3.04 ERA
