3-2-1: SEC Champion Tennessee sets sights for Hoover & postseason
Tennessee baseball concluded the regular season with a sweep of South Carolina, earning a share of regular season Southeastern Conference title with the top-seed in Hoover. The Vols won their final nine conference series of the year and are once again in consideration for the top-overall seed in NCAA postseason play.
It’s time to find out what we learned about Tony Vitello’s club this week as we list three observations, ask two questions and make one prediction for the week ahead in the SEC Tournament.
3 Observations
Zander Sechrist is tired of being called an opener
All joking aside, Tennessee senior lefty Zander Sechrist is the ultimate teammate and has been throughout his duration on Rocky Top. He’s pitched on many, many Tuesdays. He’s been on the odd man out on weekends at times and gotten a quick hook when getting actual run as well. Sechrist could have easily left and gone on to highlight a staff somewhere else via the transfer portal, but he instead stayed and is being rewarded.
Still, no pitcher wants to be referred to as an ‘opener’ and Sechrist is no different. When catching up with him over the weekend for a piece I’m working on, the crafty lefty acknowledged his willingness to do whatever to help the team win games. He did, however, say he’s not a fan of the tag ‘opener.’ Well, you keep pitching like you did on Saturday and that tag won’t be applied in the future.
Sechrist shoved. Point blank. He carved up South Carolina and worked a quick and efficient game plan with the rain on its way. Thanks to some solid defense behind him that witnessed a trio of double plays, the senior faced just one over the minimum in six innings of shutout baseball where he allowed just four hits with four strikeouts and no walks on 65 pitches. Dude was good and it was great to see.
He balled out against Georgia’s high-powered offense earlier this season, showed out against the defending LSU Tigers and dominated Southern Indiana in a rare [2024] early midweek bout. Sechrist has shown what he is capable of plenty of times this season, but he was struggling the past month entering Saturday’ start. What a note to end the regular season on. Sign me up for this Zander Sechrist in postseason baseball.
Welcome back, Dalton Bargo
It’s tough being Mr. Utility to a pretty stable lineup. When healthy, the corner outfielders of Kavares Tears and Dylan Dreiling aren’t coming out of the ballgame. Blake Burke has had an All-American type season at first base – the same for third baseman Billy Amick at times. Cal Stark ran away with the catcher position. There’s not much opportunity to draw a spot-start in the field for this Vols team.
Still, there were designated hitter opportunities to be had but since Amick returned from his eight-game absence – when Bargo filled in admirably at third base – the hits were few and way far between for the left-handed slugger. In fact, the first-year Vol entered the final game of the regular season on an 0-for-21 drought at the plate against SEC competition where his last conference hit came against the Auburn Tigers on April 7 – a span of 41 days prior.
Bargo turned the tide on Saturday with two hits against the Gamecocks, as part of a 2-for-3 day at the office with a run scored. His leadoff single in the fifth sparked the three-run frame and allowed Tennessee to take control of the ballgame. Now, just like with Peebles or Chapman at times in recent weeks, I’m not ready to say Bargo has arrived and the DH spot is his, but that was great to see. Hopefully he’s got some confidence heading into postseason play.
Hunter Ensley deserves his flowers
He’s playing some good baseball right now. It should come as no surprise given he was Tennessee’s everyday centerfielder last season for the College World Series squad, but the veteran knows this league and knows how to play it. Even when he’s going through struggles at the plate, he never seems to get too down – always finding a way back up while continuing to play excellent defense. Well, his consistent bat earned him a promotion up a few spots to No. 5 on the lineup card this weekend. It worked.
The right-handed slugger tallied a 2-for-6 clip over three games against South Carolina with a home run, three runs batted in, two runs scored, six walks and no strikeouts. Ensley got on base a ton and made some things happen. He was huge in game two with a diving catch in the alleyway of deep right-centerfield that saved multiple runs from scoring. The junior also launched the go-ahead three-run homer in the ballgame as well.
Ensley is not your prototypical No. 5 hitter, but did just fine there this weekend. Dreiling performed well hitting cleanup and Tears came alive down in the order, too. The move worked and a lot of that credit goes to the consistency of Hunter Ensley.
2 Questions
What’s the point of this week at the SEC Tournament?
I’m not going to sit here and say that a conference tournament championship won’t matter. That 2022 team had a lot of fun winning one two seasons ago. Championships are fun and get written down in record books for all of eternity. But it’s a fact that the upcoming week – in the grand scheme of things – doesn’t mean much for this specific team in Orange & White.
Now, before you start drafting your angry hate mail (send that to Grant Ramey), let’s sit here and think about it. This team has locked up a top-eight seed in all reality. It’s won a regular season conference title (yes, it’s co-champs but it all counts the same) and is the No. 1 team in the country getting ready to host regionals and hopefully Supers. There’s not a thing this team has to prove this week. That doesn’t mean you don’t try and win. You ALWAYS try and win the game in front of you, but there’s just bigger fish to fry. If you don’t believe me, see what Tony Vitello said on Saturday.
“You always want to compete when you step on the field but, but we want to manage it the right way. We’re in a different spot than we were last year for sure,” the skipper told the media after the South Carolina series. “And then this year’s unique under its own. And I guess what I’m getting at is we’ve already met as a coaching staff and there’s certain things we want to make sure we accomplish while we’re there. So, you’d like to win, but we’d also like to check those boxes.
“I think it’s possible to scheme and check some boxes and still go compete,” Vitello reiterated. “So, if you’re scheming ahead of time, whether it’s pitch counts or making sure a guy gets an outing or an at-bat, at no point should that guy or you not be pushing forward to win the ball game. But I think you can do both. And because it’s not a do or die tournament, fortunately because our guys having some success, I think you can do that.”
So, of course, the Vols will be giving it their all this week at the SEC Tournament, but some pitchers need more work than others (more on that in a moment) and you want to make sure you’re healthy and rested before next week. Go and play the games, but the games that actually matter will come the following week.
What’s the pitching going to look like in Hoover?
In conversations with some people around the program over the weekend, it appears the Vols’ plan is to throw a bullpen game on Wednesday before shifting back to their regular starting rotation for the next three games, if needed. That would basically check out and fall in line with how a normal week goes with a midweek bullpen game ahead of the weekend series. Now, it might not go that way precisely, but I’d expect to see some combination of the normal Chris Stamos / AJ Causey, Drew Beam, Zander Sechrist / Nate Snead strategy in the second, third and fourth games of the week – if needed.
I wouldn’t extend those guys too long and keep them all on a fairly conservative pitch count, but keeping them in routine on their normal days of work is probably something this coaching staff would lean towards. Wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to lessen the load for key relievers Kirby Connell and Aaron Combs, either.
Expect to see AJ Russell make his return to the mound at some point in Hoover. At this time, it feels like he could pitch during Wednesday’s bullpen game – maybe even starting it. It won’t be more than an inning or two and he would be on a strict pitch count, but Russell is likely to get some work this week.
Vitello and Frank Anderson will likely try and see plenty of Dylan Loy, Marcus Phillips and Andrew Behnke as well. Remember, if a team loses a game in regional play, they’d have to play another game to advance on. So, these guys need to continue to get work in as they could be options to be called on with the season on the line. This week is a perfect week to let them get plenty of work.
It’ll be like patchwork – as it always is – but the pitching strategy employed by the Vols this season will only help them out in postseason play.
1 Prediction
The post 3-2-1: SEC Champion Tennessee sets sights for Hoover & postseason appeared first on On3.
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