How Tennessee baseball got back on track against Texas A&M before LSU series

Tennessee baseball got knocked down against Missouri in a sweep to open SEC play.

The Vols (19-6, 3-3 SEC) got back up against Texas A&M, sweeping the Aggies (15-9, 1-5) in an essential series at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. UT scored 27 runs in three games, smashing A&M 10-4 in the Friday opener before winning 8-7 on Saturday and 9-6 on Sunday to seal the sweep.

"It’s important to receive blows the right way and respond the right way and it was a good response week," Vols coach Tony Vitello said.

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Tennessee needed the weekend — and the wins

Tennessee had a lousy three days in Columbia, Missouri, to start conference play. Vitello rolled out a lineup Tuesday in UT's midweek win against Western Carolina that didn't feature many regulars.

The message was apparently received and the Vols responded with much-needed wins and good feelings.

"You come home from a bad road trip and it’s time to get to work and show that you have some grit to you and to get better in some areas," Vitello said. "We did do that so that’s what stuck out to me with what we have this weekend.”

The wins were paramount in the moment, but they also matter moving forward. Tennessee has a frontloaded SEC slate that features a trip to LSU, a home series against Florida, a trip to Arkansas and a home series against Vanderbilt. Each upcoming opponent has an argument as a top-five team. LSU was the preseason No. 1 and Florida has looked like the SEC's best team, at times.