Only two members of the Tennessee baseball team have experienced it live.
But nearly everyone in orange has heard the rumors.
“I’ve heard Alex Box Stadium at LSU is a blast,” southpaw Andy Cox said. “It’s gonna be crazy. I know there’s going to be a ton of fans there, hopefully like 12,000 on Friday and Saturday night. It’s a great atmosphere, great playing surface, great team and I’m looking forward to it.”
Cox, along with 31 other members of the current UT squad, will turn that hearsay into reality as the Volunteers travel to LSU for the first time since 2011, opening up a three-game set tonight at 8 p.m.
For the first time this month, head coach Dave Serrano has extensively shuffled his weekend rotation, bringing in two crucial hurlers that have thrived primarily in the Vols’ bullpen this year.
In Friday’s opener against the Tigers, UT will trot out junior Peter Lenstrohm (1-1, 2.13 ERA) in what will be the Paradise Valley, Ariz., native’s first career start in orange. The righty has been one of Serrano’s most consistent relievers as of late, having surrendered just one hit and no runs in his last six outings.
In the month of April, Lenstrohm has tossed 8 2/3 scoreless frames, with just a single free pass and nine strikeouts. In his last appearance, the Yavapai College transfer tossed one inning in UT’s 9-7 loss to East Tennessee State on Tuesday.
Lenstrohm, however, will have a partner in crime also making his 2014 debut in the weekend rotation as Cox (3-1, 1.62) — arguably the Vols’ most valuable arm out of the bullpen in 2014 — is scheduled to start Saturday’s evening affair.
The sophomore lefty, who on Wednesday was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award mid-season watch list, started a pair of midweek contests earlier in the season but hasn’t been in the weekend rotation since March 17, 2013.
“I’m gonna make it seem like it’s a bullpen appearance,” Cox said. “I’m not going to change my demeanor on the mound. I’m going to do fast-tempo and command the fastball and throw strikes.
“This is another game. I’m not going to take it any differently because I’m starting. I’m just going to go out there and be the same me that I always am.”
Senior Nick Williams (4-4, 3.54) — one of the two current UT players who have tested the hostility of Alex Box Stadium — will round out the weekend rotation and go in Sunday’s finale as the Vols look for just their third series win in Baton Rouge, La., since the two foes first met in 1907.
“LSU, they’re a great team, and they’ve been a great team for a long time now,” said sophomore outfielder Vincent Jackson, who followed up Sunday’s walk-off heroics with a solo home run on Tuesday against ETSU. “But we’ve found out as a team that we can compete with anybody. We’ve beaten great teams and we can do it again.
“We just got to come and play our game of baseball and take pitch-by-pitch and not let the surroundings get to us.”
