For four straight games, the Vols have shown what they are capable of — something that they have shown glimpses of all season. Now, they have to continue their forward momentum and let it carry through the rest of the season, starting with a home series against Mississippi State.
The phrase “Tennessee baseball is back” has been thrown around since the conclusion of Saturday’s series clincher over Vanderbilt when the Vols decimated the Commodores 17-1. While completing the sweep on Sunday was certainly a step in the right direction, Tennessee still has a lot of work to do.
Following three straight series losses to top-10 opponents LSU, Florida and Arkansas, there was a legitimate chance of the Vols missing the postseason if they didn’t get a grip on the season. They did exactly that against Vanderbilt and found themselves back in control.
Still, it seems a bit premature to say “the Vols are back.” Things went very well in the Vanderbilt series thanks to Friday’s walk-off win courtesy of a Griffin Merritt home run. So, the biggest question surrounding the program is if Tennessee can push through the threshold when things don’t immediately go their way.
“Death, taxes and SEC play adversity, that’s coming,” head coach Tony Vitello said. “And it could just be one call, or it could be the scoreboard, or it could be … heck, it could be anything.”
So, when that blow comes, can the Vols issue the counterpunch or will themselves back?
“I think we’re deep enough into the year, and we’ve kind of taken enough blows or had enough adversity to where they know it,” Vitello said. “They know that the challenge is can you maintain a good energy and ride that wave a little bit, like I said, when it’s going well, and when it’s not, can you take a deep breath or just help your teammate, whatever you got to do to steer the ship so it’s going back on the course that you want it to.”
This weekend will be a good opportunity to keep the course steady with a brief break in the gauntlet of an SEC slate that it has been for the Vols. The past four series have come against then top-five opponents, and the Bulldogs will be the first unranked team that the Vols will play on the weekend since the SEC opener against Missouri. Nothing is a guaranteed win, but it will certainly serve as a relief.
The Bulldogs, like the Vols, have shown a lack of consistency all season but can churn out explosive performances, as seen in a 13-3 win over No. 3 South Carolina earlier in the year along with back-to-back 11-run performances this past weekend against Auburn.
“There’s a good handful of hitters that were a part of that group last year,” Vitello said. “We finished there so it feels a little more recent — know that sounds crazy — but it was the last weekend of the year, so it feels a little more recent. You have memory of those five or six guys that are returners in that lineup. I do know that they play a handful of young guys too, though, a good amount. So it’ll be interesting to size up that position size group.”
The Vols must take care of business at home against a solid but not great opponent with a series win at minimum. It seems that the Vols have gotten over the hump and are beginning to loosen up. Luckily for them, the turnaround has not come too late, but there is still little room for error moving forward.
