University of Tennessee Athletics
Vols travel to Furman on Tuesday
May 12, 2008 | Baseball
The Tennessee baseball team plays its final non-conference game of the regular season Tuesday when it travels to Greenville, S.C., to face Furman at ???Fluor Field at the West End,??? home of the minor-league Greenville Drive. Tennessee was notified Monday that first pitch has been moved to 7 p.m.
There will be no audio broadcast of the game.
Modeled after Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, Fluor Field at the West End boasts its own ???Green Monster,??? a 30-foot high wall in left field, equipped with a manual scoreboard. The dimensions around the outfield wall are to the same specifications as Fenway Park, including ???Pesky???s Pole??? in right field.
The Vols (25-27, 11-16 SEC) defeated the Paladins earlier this season in Knoxville by a score of 2-1. It was the collegiate debut for UT pitcher Bryan Morgado, and the left-hander recorded a career-high 12 strikeouts during the win. SEC Freshman of the Year candidate Kentrail Davis went 2-for-3 in that game with a run and an RBI.
Furman (29-20, 15-9 SoCon) has lost its last five ballgames, including a three-game sweep at the hands of Appalachian State last weekend. Tuesday???s game marks the Paladins third and final game at Fluor Field at the West End this season. Furman lost games against South Carolina (5-3 on April 22) and Clemson (11-5 on May 7) at the facility earlier this year.
The Paladins are led offensively by freshman outfielder Reese Wade, who is batting .402 with 47 hits. Four other Furman regulars are hitting .310 or better on the year, and the Paladins are averaging 6.7 runs and 10.3 hits per game. As a team, Furman is batting .300 with a 5.41 staff ERA
Starting pitchers for Tuesday???s game are expected to be junior left-hander Joey Rosas (3-2, 6.65 ERA) for Tennessee and sophomore right-hander Justin Holloway (1-2, 6.47 ERA) for Furman.
Tennessee owns an all-time record of 6-2 against Furman, dating to 1925. Only one of those meetings???a 7-6 UT win in 1971???took place in Greenville. The Big Orange boast a 52-25 all-time record against current members of the Southern Conference.
The Vols are scheduled to spend Tuesday night in Greenville before heading to Columbia, S.C., on Wednesday. Tennessee closes out the regular-season with a three-game series against the Gamecocks that runs Thursday through Saturday.
