No. 1 Tigers, No. 9 Vols set to slug it out in three SEC heavyweight fights

It’s appropriate the only remaining tickets for sale for Thursday’s series opening brawl between No. 1 LSU and No. 9 and defending SEC champion Tennessee are “standing room only.”

Because everyone packing into Alex Box Stadium for the 7 p.m. first pitch – including a busload of major league scouts – are expected to be on their feet all night anyway watching a pair of teams filled with big-league talent.

“You can't deny that we've been looking forward to this weekend,” said LSU starting pitcher Paul Skenes, who leads the nation in strikeouts (71), hits allowed per nine innings (3.38) and is No 2 in earned run average (0.72). "And you can't really ignore the hype either. But we've been preparing this whole week to just go out there and control we can control.”

It seems as if the Tigers (22-3 overall, 4-2 SEC West) have controlled every phase of games to date.

Offensively, LSU is No. 1 nationally in on-base percentage (.465) and runs scored (278) and No. 2 in batting average (.339) and scoring average (11.1 runs per game).

Defensively, the Tigers are first nationally in fielding percentage (.988).

Finally in pitching, LSU is No. 1 nationally in shutouts pitched (7) and hits allowed per nine innings (5.83).

“You got the core group of guys (at LSU) that have been there for a while,” said Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello, whose team is 20-6 overall and 3-3 in the SEC East after being swept at Missouri two weeks ago and then sweeping Texas A&M in Knoxville last weekend. “You gotta be careful about being a fan of other guys when you're competing against them. But it's cool to watch some of the guys in the league when they're young and see them keep getting and better.”

It's likely Vitello is referencing LSU junior centerfielder Dylan Crews, who this season has taken his already extraordinary career into ridiculously efficient territory.

Crews is No. 1 in the nation in batting average (.542), on-base percentage (.667) and in runs scored (48) and is No. 2 in slugging percentage (.988) and hits (45). He currently has a 23-game hitting streak and a 29-game reached base streak.

LSU has lost six straight games to Tennessee in the last three seasons, including losing five in Knoxville in 2021 (a three-game regular season series and a two-game NCAA Super Regional) and a loss in last season’s SEC tournament.

While Crews has batted. 370 with three homers, two doubles and three RBI in those six losses to the Vols, the Tigers scored two runs or less in four of the defeats and four of the losses were by two runs or less as LSU left an average of almost eight base runners stranded.

The current Tigers seemed better equipped from the top to the bottom of their batting order to battle Tennessee’s strength – pitching – on even terms. Seven of LSU’s usual nine starters bat better than .300 and all but one have hit multiple homers.

Tennessee’s starting pitchers junior righthander Chase Dollander (4-2, 3.93 ERA), sophomore righthander Chase Burns (2-1, 4.15 ERA) and sophomore righthander Drew Beam (3-1, 2.54 ERA) are regarded as one of the best starting rotations in college baseball.

“They execute multiple pitches for strikes,” LSU second-year head coach Jay Johnson said. “They have velocity on the fastball, breakers that go down, they soften people up to change up. The characteristic of the pitching staff is they're around the plate. They're going to make you beat them in the zone.”

Dollander, who gave up two runs and four hits while striking out nine when he was the winning pitcher in Tennessee’s 5-2 SEC tourney win over LSU last May, knows he has a challenge vs. the Tigers’ killer batting order.

“When you look at their lineup, there's some heavy hitters in there,” Dollander said. “They put bat-to-ball pretty well.”

In the last two seasons, Tennessee has emerged as the SEC’s team “you love to hate.”

It’s not just that the Vols have won – 50-18 in 2021 with a College World Series appearance and 57-9 last season as SEC regular season and tourney champs before losing a home Super Regional to Notre Dame – but they’ve unabashedly gone in opponents faces with their success.

Last season, any Vol who hit a home run returned to the dugout and was draped in the team’s celebratory fake cheetah fur.

This season on Feb. 24 in a 12-2 win over Dayton, Vols’ freshman Jake Kendro hit a ball over the wall near the left field foul pole that was ruled a foul. After a review, it was ruled Kendro’s first college home run, so he proceeded to retrieve his bat, flip it and trot around the bases much to the ire of Dayton reliever Matthew Johnson.

Vitello, who was suspended by the NCAA last season for four games after intentionally chest bumping an umpire during an argument, also was ejected in a game in the Vols’ SEC opening series at Missouri two weeks ago after a UT pitcher was called for a balk.

Tennessee had 10 players taken in the 2022 major league baseball draft, including the entire starting outfield, three of four starting infielders and four relief pitchers. The Vols also lost two starting position players to graduation.

“We don't need sympathy, and we have talent, so we should win some games,” Vitello said after Tuesday’s 5-0 non-conference win over UNC Asheville. “But to be fair to these kids, they've taken on a lot of stuff that maybe they're not the ones that initiated it.

“I like guys being hyped up but I think some of our guys were inflated a little bit with maybe what some of the expectations were when you look at the entire track record. But everything about this group gets lumped in with what went on last year.”

Here’s the series pitching matchups:

Game 1, 7 p.m., Thursday (ESPNU)

LSU – Jr. RH Paul Skenes (5-0, 0.72 ERA, 37.1 IP, 7 BB, 71 SO)

UT – Jr. RH Chase Dollander (4-2, 3.93 ERA, 34.1 IP, 8 BB, 53 SO)

Game 2, 6 p.m., Friday (SEC Network)

LSU – Jr. RH Ty Floyd (4-0, 2.05 ERA, 26.1 IP, 9 BB, 31 SO

UT – So. RH Chase Burns (2-1, 4.15 ERA, 34.2 IP, 9 BB, 59 SO)

Game 3, 1 p.m., Saturday (SEC Network+)

LSU – So. RH Thatcher Hurd (2-0, 3.91 ERA, 23.0 IP, 15 BB, 32 SO)

UT – So. RH Drew Beam (3-1, 2.54 ERA, 28.1 IP, 8 BB, 27 SO)