Tennessee vs Missouri Game 3 Thread - 2:00

I love coach Vitello and think he will make us a contender, but the one thing that has bothered me the last two seasons is handling the pitching staff. He seems to leave guys in too long.

Also, it seems both seasons he has used too few pitchers early season and allowed them to pitch too many innings early on and not giving other guys valuable experience.

We really haven’t used anyone too much other than potentially Stallings. Lingo is at 57ip 12 weeks into the season. Crochet is at 50. We are behind a lot of teams in our usage of weekend starters.

I was not a fan of either coach’s use of their starters on Saturday. I didn’t like Crochet coming back out, and I didn’t think it was right to use Sikkema today. There is way too much money in both of those kids’ future for that.
 
Lost a home series to a team not much better if at all than us after winning game 1 and having a huge lead in game 3. Utterly embarrassing and pathetic.

UT being...well...UT.
 
Still a lot of baseball to be played. Everything is still in play and the sky hasn’t completely fallen. Had some big breaks go against us but that is what the game does. The play at 2nd that we dropped (should have been ruled an error) was huge and cost us 3 runs. We have had a lot of tough breaks at 2nd this year but evidently not much choice there as far as a replacement.

If we can go 3-3 in the next two sec series, take care of the mid week games and then get 1 or 2 in the sec tournament, I think we are in. Go 4-2 against FL and ole miss, locked in.
 
UT now has the #1 SOS in the country, and still top 10 rpi. Fresno St fell to 51, so UT has 11 Quad 1 wins instead of 13 if Fresno State stayed top 50. 11-13 against Quad 1, with 6 more left vs UF and Ole Miss. I dont see UT dropping outside of the RPI 20. UT should be in the tourney unless the team just collapses down the stretch.
 
Bad loss. Lost the series after winning game one. Improvement over last year but this is what kills me! MO has used us in baseball and football since they entered the conference! Tennessee a “blue blood” SEC power can’t even beat MO. This has not changed in how many years now? Forget Alabama, GA Fla, we can’t even best MO and Vandy!! It’s discouraging and embarrassing. Maybe next year!! We’re getting drilled by MO in football and owned by them in BB! Smh! I’m sick of it!!! It’s pathetic!!
 
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Our pitching seems to be struggling some lately. It is sort of understandable against very good hitting Ark. Missouri pretty good hitting but not that great. Pitchers may have lost their confidence some after Ark. Not good with FL being a good hitting team, and at FL. FL did not hit that well against GA, and unfortunately that may get them fired up to hit better against us - hope not. Vol pitchers need to be at their best this week to have a chance to take this series. The one good thing is that FL pitchers have not been very good. GBO.
 
This board gets way to high after the highs and way to low after lows. It’s a long season. They have a regional resume. The most important metric the NCAA uses has them 10th. They have plenty of Top 50 Quadrant 1 wins. The magic number is 6 I think that gets them safely win. 5 I still think they are in but will sweat it. Those wins can come in anyway shape or form with non con and SEC Tournament included.
 
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Don’t look now but you’re witnessing it.

We've not taken advantage of our opportunities to be sure, but there's still baseball left to play. I know the gauntlet we have ahead, but in any sport, teams/players can get hot and on a roll. Hey, maybe we can snag a series. Maybe we lose 'em both. Hell, might get swept and collapse. No idea. If nothing else, it will be an experience this program can learn from. I'm not ready to give up on them just yet.
 
The magic number is 6 I think that gets them safely win. 5 I still think they are in but will sweat it. Those wins can come in anyway shape or form with non con and SEC Tournament included.

The magic numbers of 6 and 5 are likely true but there is no way they get in at 12-18 unless they win the SEC tournament so the anyway shape or form statement is untrue. Need to at least split the last 6 conference games to get on the bubble. And that split is appearing less and less likely.
 
The magic numbers of 6 and 5 are likely true but there is no way they get in at 12-18 unless they win the SEC tournament so the anyway shape or form statement is untrue. Need to at least split the last 6 conference games to get on the bubble. And that split is appearing less and less likely.
I disagreee with you there. If that’s the case Tennessee would be the 1st SEC team in the history of college baseball tournament to not get a bid with a top 20 RPI. However with win total I just gave they would have 13 wins in the SEC.
 
I disagreee with you there. If that’s the case Tennessee would be the 1st SEC team in the history of college baseball tournament to not get a bid with a top 20 RPI. However with win total I just gave they would have 13 wins in the SEC.

And they would be the first SEC team in history to get in with a 12-18 record. Yes they need to be at least 13-17 to get into the regional conversation. And like you said, they'd be sweating selection Monday even with that record.
 
And they would be the first SEC team in history to get in with a 12-18 record. Yes they need to be at least 13-17 to get into the regional conversation. And like you said, they'd be sweating selection Monday even with that record.
That part is true as well. There non conference resume shouldn’t over looked it’s as impressive as anyone out there. Like Basketball take a look at the rest of the bubble teams and compare the resume. Tennessee is very favorable.
 
I wish that baseball was like basketball but it just isn't. The baseball committee has a bias towards growing the sport beyond the south and west and has had that bias for decades. Because of that, SEC bubble teams with favorable resumes sometimes get passed over in favor of teams from other conferences. We all know that all 12 teams in Hoover should make the NCAAs but it never happens because of the committee bias. 13-17 SEC has often been the threshold to overcoming the bias. We'll see if that holds true again this year.
 
It would be a good start if the Vols could just get past the first day of the SEC Tournament and into the double elimination portion. When was the last time they even accomplished that?
 
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I said going into the season getting to Hoover would be a good first step. It would be great if we could advance to the second or third game while we're there. This talk of a possible regional is a bonus. Don't know if we'll get there though. The Missouri series this weekend really set us back, but at least it's still not off the table. Lose the series to Florida this weekend then we would have to advance really far in Hoover or win the whole thing to get in, IMO.
 
I said going into the season getting to Hoover would be a good first step. It would be great if we could advance to the second or third game while we're there. This talk of a possible regional is a bonus. Don't know if we'll get there though. The Missouri series this weekend really set us back, but at least it's still not off the table. Lose the series to Florida this weekend then we would have to advance really far in Hoover or win the whole thing to get in, IMO.
Missouri is a good team. Tennessee has 32 wins with a top 10 strength of schedule. RPI has them 10 and they are still ranked 24th. Just go to Gainesville and win the series and that changes everything. Still in really good shape.
 
at least we're talking about baseball more than last year...now, just win the Gator series and the Ole Miss series and it's all good...no step for a stepper, is it...:D

GO BIG ORANGE!
 
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Tennessee has to win at least one of their remaining series, and probably has to get past day 1 in Hoover. Realistically, no matter what your RPI is, you gotta win series to get into the field. Losing to Missouri is a killer because if it comes down to them vs UT—regardless of RPI—UT loses.
 
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The magic numbers of 6 and 5 are likely true but there is no way they get in at 12-18 unless they win the SEC tournament so the anyway shape or form statement is untrue. Need to at least split the last 6 conference games to get on the bubble. And that split is appearing less and less likely.

I think 13 will be fine. But their resume is really unlike you will ever see. They will be 24-2 OOC with an OOC RPI of 2. They have the toughest schedule in the nation. At this point, conference record shouldn’t really matter. They are one of the best 64 teams in the country, and it really isn’t close. If they win 6 in any way like the OP said, the overall RPI will be very high.
 
Win 4 out of next 7 SEC games and they’re in the NCAA. 6 SEC games left and opening game of tournament = 7 games. Any combo of 4 wins and in.
 

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