KNOXVILLE – From the near corner of Tennessee’s dugout – the one closest to home plate and the pitcher’s mound – Frank Anderson keeps a watchful eye on his flock.
The Vols baseball assistant is in his 35th year of coaching. He’s spent most of his career tending to some of the nation’s top pitching staffs.
Anderson was the pitching coach for Texas when the Longhorns won a national championship in 2002.
Prior to joining coach Tony Vitello’s staff at Tennessee two years ago, he had 15 pitchers selected in Major League Baseball’s draft during his three-year stint at Houston.
Anderson has watched a lot of good pitching, enough for Vitello to ask him rather pointedly before this season about what he saw in Tennessee’s staff.
“He wasn’t shy about comparing it to other (staffs) and said they could be very good,” Vitello said.
Vitello lingered over one word of Anderson’s scouting report.
“That ‘could’ word is always floating around this stadium,” he said late Tuesday night at UT’s Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Vitello was recalling his reaction after eight Vols pitchers combined for 5-0 shutout of Gardner-Webb. Camden Sewell, a freshman from Cleveland, Tenn., started and earned his fourth victory. He also whittled his already miniscule earned run average to 0.67
The Vols (31-11) lead the NCAA with nine shutouts. The total is one shy of UT’s single-season record, which was set in 1994. Three shutouts have occurred in the last 11 games, during a span in which Tennessee’s pitchers have held the opposition to two runs or fewer in nine games, winning all nine.
Overall, Tennessee is among the nation’s leaders in team ERA (2.68) and walks allowed per nine innings (2.62). Staff ace Garrett Stallings is 7-2 with 1.82 ERA (1.94 in SEC play).
The staff is taking the “could” out of its potential.
“I think it’s come to fruition,” Vitello said. “This is the core of our team, the source of our strength. It comes from the pitching.”
The Vols currently have a presence in five different national polls. They are up to No. 18 in the USA Today Coaches poll, their highest ranking in that poll in five years. They’re also in the running for an NCAA tournament berth.
“In terms of last year, we’ve come a long way,” Stallings said. “We’re definitely back in the hunt, back in the hunt of where we want to be in terms of making the postseason.”
Vitello sees a ripple effect from UT’s pitching that’s reaching throughout the team’s performance.
“When guys are throwing strikes, you’re in the game as a defender,” he said. “There’s less pressure on the offense.”
In the process, one team strength begets another: the Vols’ fielding percentage (.982) is among the nation’s leaders. They ranked 140th last season.
The final exam for the Vols’ strengths will be finishing the SEC gauntlet. They’ve won five of their last six conference games, including two over then-No. 2 Georgia. A 9-9 record is their best through 18 conference games since 2008.
A weekend series at Arkansas is looming, however. Vitello served four years as a Razorbacks assistant before coming to UT. Therefore, he knows what’s in store, both from the Razorbacks (31-11, 12-6) and the large, raucous crowds at Baum Stadium.
Could make for interesting viewing.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri who covered University of Tennessee athletics for the Knoxville News Sentinel from 1988-2019. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com