The Baseball 3-2-1: SEC Tournament time for Tony Vitello and the boys
Tennessee capped the regular season with its first series-win on the road, taking two of three at South Carolina to end with a 38-8 overall record and a 16-14 mark in Southeastern Conference play. Now it’s time for the conference tournament in Hoover, Ala. where the Vols are set to defend their title as a seventh seed in 2023.
Tony Vitello’s club is also jockeying for a regional hosting bid over the next few days. What did we learn about Tennessee over the last week of play? We swing away with the weekly 3-2-1 featuring three observations, two questions and one thought for the week ahead.
Three Observations
What a close!
Was it perfect? No. Was it still frustrating at times? Absolutely. But what Tennessee did in the back half of the SEC schedule truly deserves some praise. Sitting at 5-10 in conference, stemming from three-straight series-losses, the Vols ended the regular season winners of 11 of their final 15 SEC games and 15 of 19 overall. Tennessee swept Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and took two of three over Kentucky and South Carolina. It’s lone series-loss during the span came at Georgia two weeks ago.
Vitello warned that it would be a work in progress during the preseason – that Tennessee was over ranked to begin the year. You don’t just replace every starter in the lineup and expect things to run as smoothly as they did during a record-setting campaign from a year ago. Sometimes we all get caught up in the winning and expect perfection, but that’s just not how this game works.
Tennessee had its back against a wall and fought like hell to overcome it, getting better each game along the way. The regular season was far from perfect and the Vols hurt themselves in a lot of ways – but they rallied and got better and are now in a position to talk about hosting a regional. With a couple of wins in Hoover, maybe that solidifies it as the Vols enter the week ranked No. 16 in the RPI.
Regardless, this team didn’t quit. It continued to get better and ended the season with a winning record in conference. That’s always tough to do in the SEC.
Now that’s some elite starting pitching
It was like looking into the past this weekend, seeing the way Tennessee’s starting pitching dominated South Carolina over the course of the three games. That’s exactly what it was – dominance. Andrew Lindsey, Chase Dollander and Drew Beam combined to give the Vols their best pitching weekend of the year in a series that needed it the most with Hoover right around the corner. Job well done.
Lindsey retired his final 17 batters on Friday and tossed five 1-2-3 innings along the way. The righty faced the minimum in seven frames and allowed just one hit over the minimum during his outing. Lindsey needed just eight pitches to get out of the fourth and fifth innings and totaled 103 pitches in 8.1 innings on the night. He was awesome.
Dollander and Beam were just as impressive (in entirely different ways) over the course of two seven inning affairs during Saturday’s doubleheader. The former tied a career-high with 13 strikeouts, retired as many as 10-straight at one point and struck out at least two batters in every complete inning he pitched. He was charged for two runs on the day but took home a loss he didn’t deserve. The latter rebounded in a marvelous way after three recent tough outings, tossing six innings of one-run baseball, stranding five men on base and three on third base by inning’s end. It was encouraging heading into postseason play as questions were abundant heading into his start.
Tennessee’s starting pitching was incredible this weekend and it saved their bullpen with a long week ahead.
Tony made it difficult when he didn’t have to
On the note of starting pitching, we have to talk about it. Tony Vitello and Frank Anderson have forgotten more baseball than I will ever know, but they both overcomplicated things this weekend. It’s easy to sit back after the fact and say that was the right or wrong call. As sports fans, we do it all the time. But the way they managed the starters at the end this weekend was less than to be desired.
Drew Beam being pulled at 75 pitches prior to the seventh in game three was understandable because the top of that inning took about 35 minutes as the Vols plated six runs. Ok, I get that one. Andrew Lindsey being pulled with two outs to go before capping a complete-game shutout in game one? Come on, he earned that, and 103 pitches is not the end of the world. Chase Dollander being removed from game two in the bottom of the sixth inning with one down and a runner at first – I will never understand. He was grooving at only 82 pitches. Sure, a lot of them were fastballs and the heart of the order was up, but like Lindsey, he earned that opportunity.
Vitello’s reasoning postgame is valid as you have three high-leverage arms in the bullpen and you would have hated not to use them and it come back to bite you. But nobody pitched better than Chase Dollander on Saturday and nobody was going to. It’s baseball. Sometimes you make the right call and sometimes you don’t. Vitello made the wrong call there and Tennessee and Chase Burns unfortunately spiraled.
Two Questions
What does the pitching look like heading into the SEC Tournament?
Much like game three at South Carolina, it’s going to be a wait and see approach. That’s tournament baseball and that’s how it will be this week until the Vols make it long enough to where the starters can go on short rest. Because of the elite starting pitching this past weekend, the Tennessee bullpen is in excellent shape as only four arms were used with two of them throwing less than nine pitches. However, the rain didn’t do the Vols any favors as both Andrew Lindsey and Chase Dollander pitched a day later than scheduled.
Seth Halvorsen and Camden Sewell didn’t pitch at all. Chase Burns logged 26 pitches and AJ Russell registered 18 pitches – both on Saturday. Those are the four bullpen arms you feel comfortable starting games in postseason play. For Tuesday, I’d expect one of Halvorsen or Sewell to start the ballgame with a piggyback behind them. Both of these guys have started games in this league before. Sewell even started and won last year’s tournament title game. Halvorsen would be my pick as of today. Even though Russell threw on Saturday, I still believe he could be an option for Tuesday, but I view that out of the bullpen. You’re at the point of the year where you ride your guys, and they will pitch a lot.
We will see as we inch closer to gametime if there’s more clarity on the matter, but I’d expect one of those veteran bullpen arms (likely Halvorsen) to start Tuesday and maybe another on Wednesday, if needed. If Lindsey, Dollander and Beam were to start on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – it would be four days rest for all of them. In the past, however, Tennessee has given their starters at least five days of rest in tournament settings. They will not put their guys in harm way. Remember, regionals is much more important than this week, even if you’re on the road.
Is Jared Dickey all the way back?
It was great to see Jared Dickey back out there again this weekend. The slugger came on as a pinch-hitter in game one of Saturday’s doubleheader and then started and played the field in game two. Tony Vitello said during an in-game interview on Saturday that he looked really good in batting practice, but they were hesitant to start him for both games of the doubleheader. He played the nightcap and looked good.
With two more days of rest, I’d imagine Dickey is ready to roll. As long as the soreness isn’t overpowering, I’d expect him out there. With Dickey in the lineup, you can then decide where you want to place Blake Burke, who made a start in the leadoff spot for game three of the South Carolina series. I would be surprised to see that sticking from here on out, thus Burke could move back to the five-hole.
One Thought for the Week Ahead
The regular season is over and the SEC Tournament is around the corner. Tennessee has made a lot of progress over the course of the past few weeks and could end up hosting a regional depending on how this week goes. Tennessee could play a lot of games this week or it could play and go home with a loss on Tuesday. Whatever the case is, the team has an identity now and has grown into a pretty tight group. It’s ready for the upcoming stretch.
“I think if you compare it to last year, which we’ve said all along is not fair, if you kind of want to look at a different way to go about it – we have here with this group a bunch of lessons learned and a lot of momentum,” Vitello said after the South Carolina series. “Maybe kind of coming together in the locker room in different ways and of course in the dugout and kind of marching forward.
“I think the question you have to have over your head is, have we played our best ball yet? And I don’t think that necessarily the answer would be yes. So, kind of that momentum forward is key and obviously any win you get in the league puts you in a better position for whatever the NCAA decides to do.”
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