Previewing No. 4 Texas' trip to Tennessee in a battle of UTs

The Texas Longhorns are travelling to Knoxville, Tenn. to face off against the Tennessee Volunteers as a conference opponent in baseball for the first time since joining the SEC. Texas appears to hold an advantage as a team and individually across the board. A series win over Tennessee should lock Texas as a top-eight seed ahead of the Missouri series to close out the year.

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Josh Elander by first-year head coaching standards hasn’t done that bad, especially given that his first year is in the competitive SEC. The Austin product who played under and coached with Jim Schlossnagle at TCU will be familiar with his old coach and boss in this weekend’s series.

Right now Tennessee is on the bubble. At No. 36 in RPI, a series win over Texas should make them one of the final SEC teams to earn a spot in the tournament. Since 2017, No. 36 has been the highest RPI rank by a SEC team that made the NCAA tournament.

The Volunteers will not be in desperation mode just yet with Oklahoma left on their schedule.

The team stats for the Vols show a squad that has been in the middle of the SEC pack all year. Texas has maintained its status as one of the top pitching teams in the country while also ranking as a top-five-in-the-SEC team in hitting.

When looking at advanced stats, Texas holds the edge in offensive WAR, defensive WAR, and total WAR. Of the top 10 in offensive WAR between the two teams, Texas has six players and four of the top five. The top 10 in defensive WAR evens out with five for each program, but the Longhorns hold five of the top eight. Finally looking at total WAR, Texas holds seven of the top eight.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

FRIDAY – Texas LHP Dylan Volantis (1.87 ERA) vs. Tennessee RHP Tegan Kuhns (3.46 ERA)
Kuhns headlines this Tennessee staff with a fantastic arm that will strike out a good number of batters while limiting free passes. He is coming off of a poor start, but he has displayed the ability to go deep into an outing throughout the campaign. If he is on, Tennessee will ride him out. Volantis is Volantis, Texas fans should be very familiar with the standout sophomore. In his last three starts, he has struck out 35 batters and allowed only five walks. He is on fire right now.

SATURDAY – Texas RHP Ruger Riojas (3.71 ERA) vs. Tennessee LHP Evan Blanco (4.36 ERA)
Blanco is another pitcher who can go over 100 pitches though he has had a tendency to allow his fair share of earned runs. He limits opposing batters to a .217 average at the plate. Riojas has seen some shaky weeks recently, but he is coming off of a really promising outing against a dangerous Mississippi State offense. Even in his “struggles,” he is striking out a high number of batters.

SUNDAY – Texas LHP Luke Harrison (4.35 ERA) vs. Tennessee RHP Landon Mack (4.67 ERA)
Mack in many ways is like Blanco with a very close strikeout to walk ratio, though he has the highest opponent batting average allowed of this bunch at .279 on the season. He too will be given the chance to go into the 100-pitch echelon this weekend. Harrison has been fantastic in the Sunday spot for Texas. He’s coming off of what looked like a poor game in the box score, but after allowing five earned runs on 41 pitches in the first inning, he recovered with a gem on the mound over the next four innings to earn the win over the Bulldogs.

STATISTICAL MATCHUP

With both teams excelling on the mound as far as walking batters goes, both shades of orange will want to be aggressive at the plate and take the offensive chances they can to put the bat on the ball. This is not the 2022 Tennessee team that was tearing the cover off the ball, the Volunteers have struggled with consistency at the plate. While Texas has not been bad, they haven’t been a top team either. Texas will look to get the entire order in sync as it heads to tournament play.

This is a series the Longhorns should win. Texas will want to win this series if it wants to keep a national seed with an optimal 2-seed pairing in the Austin regional.

The battle for the real UT is here.