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Tennessee baseball announces starting pitcher vs Arkansas in SEC Tournament

Mike Wilson credential pictureby: Mike Wilson05/20/26ByMikeWilson

Evan Blanco will start for Tennessee baseball against Arkansas in the SEC Tournament on Wednesday, Vols coach Josh Elander announced Tuesday.

“The guy is an elite competitor (and) wants the baseball,” Elander said. “We’ll get into the specifics, but there’s not any kind of hard pitch count as of now that we’ve discussed.”

Blanco is 7-3 with a 4.56 ERA in 14 starts after transferring to UT from Virginia.

The senior left-handed pitcher will be on short rest after pitching at Oklahoma on Friday. He threw six innings, allowing three runs on five hits and four walks. He threw 99 pitches. His start at Oklahoma also was on short rest after he pitched against Texas on May 9. He threw 111 pitches in that seven-inning start.

“I’ll get to specifics with (pitching coach Josh Reynolds), but Blanco and I were talking about it, again, how he threw at OU, he feels really, really good,” Elander said.

Blanco turned in six quality starts in SEC play, including a stretch of four straight in April.

The No. 10 seed Vols (38-19) advanced to the second round to face the No. 7 seed Razorbacks (36-19) by beating No. 15 seed South Carolina (22-35) 11-6 on Tuesday in their first game at Hoover Met. Tennessee and Arkansas are slated to play at 5:30 p.m. ET (SEC Network).

UT and Arkansas did not play in the regular season. The teams most recently met in the Fayetteville Super Regional in 2025, which the Razorbacks won in two games.

The Vols faced the Razorbacks in the 2021 SEC Tournament title game, losing 7-2 in the programs’ most recent meeting in the conference tournament.

Tennessee baseball recent history in the SEC Tournament

Tennessee has reached at least the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in four of the past five seasons. it won the tournament title in 2022 and 2024, sweeping both the regular-season title and the tournament title both times.

UT’s SEC Tournament title in 2022 was its first since 1995. It rebounded from an opening-round loss in 2024 to win the title against LSU.

The Vols made a run to the semifinals in 2025 as the No. 8 seed. They upset No. 1 seed Texas in the quarterfinals.

Tennessee also played for the tournament title in 2021, but lost 7-2 to Arkansas in the championship. UT was bounced in its opener against Texas A&M in 2023.