Tennessee baseball: Did Tennessee Tech pitching expose a big Vols’ weakness?

Losing a random midweek game is not a big concern in the regular season as long as it doesn’t happen frequently. Tennessee baseball still has elite pitching and remains undefeated in SEC play. They are No. 1 in the country for a reason.

However, in their 3-2 loss to the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles Tuesday, there may be more to the game than UT just being caught off guard. Wooden bats will be the shiny excuse. It goes even deeper than that, though.

Two big strengths of Tennessee baseball’s offense is home runs, which they lead the nation in, and putting the ball in play. UT averages only eight strikeouts a game at the plate. The wooden bats explain the drop in home runs. They don’t explain the 13 strikeouts.

So what did Tennessee Tech do? Well, they relied heavily on off-speed pitches, particularly when Carter Gannaway came in. That resulted in Rocky Top leaving nine players on base for the game. In the bottom of the eighth, they had the go-ahead run on base with one out, but Jared Dickey then struck out.

Could this be a concern going forward? SEC play is largely based on power pitching. There’s a reason six of the top 11 teams nationally in strikeouts per nine innings are from that league while six of the top 25 teams nationally in home runs per game are also from there.

Of course, Tennessee baseball leads the SEC in both. They are third in strikeouts per nine innings and, while leading the nation in home runs in total, are second in home runs per game. Simply put, they fit the perfect profile of an SEC team.

If teams start to realize that they struggle with off-speed pitches, though, then we’re talking about a huge game-changer. Power pitching can still carry this team, but they need their offensive production to pull out victories.

Look, it was just one game. This team is still 31-2 and 12-0 in the SEC, and nobody can take away from the fact that they swept both the Ole Miss Rebels and the Vanderbilt Commodores in back to back weekends. If they handle the Alabama Crimson Tide this weekend, they’ll still likely be No. 1 when next week rolls around.

That doesn’t mean this is nothing to be concerned about, though. This weekend, they’ll be facing a team that is a little less about power. Alabama is No. 23 in the nation in WHIP and No. 30 in the nation in ERA. However, they are only No. 57 in strikeouts per game.

Taking that into account, they rely more on off-speed pitches than most teams the Vols have seen. Sure, the metal bats return, and the series will be played at Lindsey-Nelson Stadium, but the Tide seem like a bad matchup for Rocky Top.

Remember, their only other loss on the year was to the Texas Longhorns, where they also scored only two runs and fell 7-2. Texas is No. 13 in WHIP and No. 15 in ERA, but they are down at No. 154 in strikeouts per nine innings.

Simply put, control pitching over power seems to be the way to beat Tennessee baseball, and that means the Texas loss wasn’t a fluke. Tony Vitello’s team has some issues to address at the plate if they want to return to dominating their opponents.