Poor Pitching Costs the Vols Their Series against Arkansas

Despite dropping an unexpected four consecutive series against the SEC, the Vols were hoping to use their final series of the regular season against the Arkansas Razorbacks to end their 2025 campaign on a high note. However, the Vols ended up dropping two games and losing the series, which continued their disappointing series losing streak. What ultimately was the issue for the Vols and kept them from winning their final series of the regular season?

Before mentioning what went wrong in the series, it is worth noting that the Razorbacks are a great team, arguably the best in the conference. The highly-touted group leads the SEC in batting average and is also in the top five for ERA. With the Vols also ranking in the top five in both categories in the conference, they absolutely had all the tools to come out victorious against the Razorbacks.

The genesis of the Vols’ struggles in this series was their inability to establish their presence on the mound. Despite opening the series with a win, the Vols relinquished seven runs in their 10-7 victory. This became a trend in the series, as they surrendered eight runs in both their losses in the series. Allowing such a high total of runs puts enormous pressure on the offense, who failed to conjure up the hits needed to come out victorious. 

The high runs may be an easy way to point at the game and discuss the poor pitching, but there is a glaring stat that truly puts in perspective the rough series on the mound; walks. The Vols struggled to consistenly control their location and it played a major role on the series outcome. In the two losses of the series, the Vols walked the Razorbacks 13 times, as opposed to the Razorbacks only surrendering six. The notable discrepancy in the free passes allowed by the Vols created a steep-hill to overcome, and the Razorbacks took full advantage.

In game three, the Vols allowed a staggering nine walks. They actually outhit the Razorbacks, but allowing so many runners a free trip on base allowed the Razorbacks to really make it count whenever they did hit the ball, which helped support an explosive five-run third inning that the Vols could not overcome, resulting in a 4-8 final.

After dropping the series, the Vols finished with a 16-14 conference record and currently are in eighth place in the conference. Despite the rut in which the season ended, the Vols are still expected to make a postseason run and have some of the highest odds to win the NCAA tournament. With the conference tournament getting started this week, the Vols have their chance to put the poor finish behind them and get ready to repeat as national champions.