Tennessee Baseball Hosts MTSU and Morehead State

Tennessee returns to Knoxville from a disappointing trip out west and looks to respond against Middle Tennessee State and Morehead State before hosting a dangerous Grand Canyon team. The Vols are even on the year at four wins and losses.

Tennessee ran into issues against UC Irvine, dropping both games of Friday's double header thanks in part to some costly errors.  The most painful error happened in the sixth inning of game one with Tennessee leading by one.  The Anteaters had the bases loaded and hit a line drive to Vincent Jackson in center field.  Jackson misplayed the ball which allowed it to reach the wall and clear the bases.  The Vols had the lead in each game, but had issues maintaining it which resulted in three blown one-run leads and two blown three-run leads.

This year's team has had some trouble stealing bases, especially when compared against Dave Serrano's former teams.  In 2014, the Vols were safe in almost 77% of their stolen base attempts, and in 2013 they were safe in 73%.  So far this season that has fallen to 59%. Of the 143 teams with at least 10 stolen bases this season (which includes Tennessee at 10), only nine have a lower success rate.  Twice in the past week the Vols have attempted double steal attempts, and both times a runner was thrown out.  The season is still young, and our sample size is small with only eight games played, but hopefully the Vols manage to work out these issues.

The Vols are 33-22 all-time against MTSU. The last game played in the series was last March in Murfreesboro where UT walked away with a 2-0 victory.  MTSU is coming off of a series win at New Orleans, where they won two of three.  Zach Warren will be getting his college debut for the Vols against the Blue Raiders Tuesday night.

Tennessee leads the Morehead State series 32-2 all-time, and defeated them last May in a close 14-13 game in 12 innings. That win was the longest game in program history, just shy of five hours.

Tennessee Volunteers (4-4) vs MTSU Blue Raiders (7-2)

Date: Tuesday March 3, 2015

First Pitch: 6 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Knoxville, TN

Live Audio: UTSports

Internet Video: WatchESPN

Live Stats: Gametracker

Probable Starting Pitchers: UT LHP Zach Warren (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs MTSU RHP Sam Alton (1-0, 2.84 ERA)

Players to Keep an Eye on:

Tennessee Volunteers (4-4) vs Morehead State Eagles (6-3)

Date: Wednesday March 4, 2015

First Pitch: 4 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Knoxville, TN

Internet Video: WatchESPN

Live Stats: Gametracker

Probable Starting Pitchers: UT TBD (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs MSU LHP Aaron Leasher (0-0, 1.59 ERA)

Players to Keep an Eye on:

Go Vols!