Tennessee baseball concluded the regular season by completing a weekend sweep of South Carolina at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

The Vols earned the one-seed int he SEC Tournament and a share of the SEC Championship by posting a 46-10 (22-8 SEC) record. Tennessee finished the season strong, sweeping its final three home series and posting a 12-3 record the back half of SEC play.

Where do things stand for Tennessee baseball entering the SEC Tournament and what questions do we have entering postseason play? Taking a look in the latest Tennessee baseball notebook.

Signs Of Life At Designated Hitter

We’ve written and talked at length about Tennessee’s designated hitter issues in the back half of SEC play and its importance in the Vols’ reaching their offensive potential.

Tony Vitello continued to rotate players at the spot this weekend. Colby Backus, Reese Chapman and Dalton Bargo all started games and Bargo was the only one that didn’t get pinch hit for later in the game.

It wasn’t an all of a sudden great weekend for Tennessee at the designated hitter spot but there were signs of improvement. Five Volunteer hitters combined to hit three-for-nine with a walk and a hit-by pitch (.455 OBP).

Bargo broke out of a zero-for-20 slump in SEC play with two hits on Saturday while both Reese Chapman and Cannon Peebles reached base and had good at-bats. It was a step in the right direction for Tennessee, but don’t expect any change in the strategy entering entering the postseason.

“They shouldn’t feel like the frequent changes come because they did something wrong so we’re trying some other guy,” Vitello said. “It’s (because) we have the flexibility to go into a game if we really wanted to, we had the flexibility if the DH spot gets four at-bats to do four different guys.”

Hunter Ensley’s Strong Stretch Continues

Tennessee centerfielder Hunter Ensley was one of the Vols’ best hitters a season ago, but has struggled to find his footing over the course of the season.

But over the last few weeks, Ensley has done just that. He turned in one of his best weekends of the season against South Carolina. He hit just two-of-six but walked six times and hit the go-ahead three-run home run in game two of the weekend series.

Over the last four series, Ensley is 11-for-31 (.297) at the plate with three home runs, 12 RBIs, eight walks and two hit-by pitches.

The redshirt junior isn’t going to be one of the top hitters on this year’s team like he was last season. But he’s back to hitting like he did last season over the past month. That’s high level production to go along with great defense in centerfield.

And that is very valuable.

Who Starts For Tennessee On Wednesday At SEC Tournament?

Tennessee opens up play at the SEC Tournament on Wednesday evening where they’ll face the winner of Tuesday night’s Florida-Vanderbilt game.

So who starts on the mound for Tennessee in its SEC Tournament opener?

Rolling with its usual series opening combo of Chris Stamos and AJ Causey is a possibility. It would be one day less rest than usual but Tennessee has done that plenty of times this season when series alternate from Friday to Thursday starts. But after the Vols pitched the duo on six days rest last week they might not want to force the duo to do that for the second straight week.

If not Stamos and Causey, then who?

Nate Snead threw just 22 pitches in Saturday’s series finale. He would likely be available to throw a full outings worth of pitches. Tennessee hasn’t used him as a starter all year but he’s worked up enough to handle a starter’s workload.

How Does Tennessee Use AJ Russell?

Another potential option is AJ Russell. Sidelined since the Ole Miss series, the right-handed pitcher seems likely to return to the mound this week in Hoover.

While Russell won’t be worked up enough for a true start, Russell could serve as an opener. However, Russell is similar to Snead and with Snead the most likely arm to pitch in long relief on Wednesday, it feels unlikely that Tennessee would stack to the two.

That’s a micro look at how Tennessee could use AJ Russell at the SEC Tournament but what about the macro view? What’s the most valuable way to use Russell in the NCAA Tournament?

He could serve as an opener but Tennessee already has two pitchers they like in that role. A high leverage reliever seems more likely. Someone who can come in to the game in a big spot and get three to six outs for Tennessee, whether that be in the fifth inning or the eighth inning.

As Russell gets worked up and can throw more pitches, that’s when Tennessee can get creative with how they use him and Snead. Tennessee’s pitching has been very good the last two months but depth remains a bit of a question.

Russell is capable of providing a huge boost to the pitching staff in whatever role. That almost certainly starts this week in Hoover.

In the 18 months since the Supreme Court Dobbs decision ushered in abortion bans or restrictions in nearly half the country, the volume of abortions across the United States has slightly risen, according to new data released last week by the Society for Family Planning.

Among the factors driving the increase are more patients, who in their first trimester of pregnancy turned to telemedicine, in which abortion-inducing pills are be prescribed and sent through the mail — among them a rapidly growing number of pregnant women who live in states with strict abortion bans.

In total, nearly one-in-five abortions in the U.S. sought in the latter half of 2023 were medication abortions via telemedicine — accounting for nearly 17,000 abortion each month, the #WeCount report found.

Of these, 8,000 were sought monthly by women living in states with abortion bans who had virtual appointments with healthcare providers located in a handful of states that have enacted so-called shield laws — laws that first began appearing in 2023 and that are designed to provide legal protections from criminal or civil actions for healthcare providers prescribing abortion pills to women in states with bans or severe restrictions.

“A main takeway from the #WeCount Report is that banning abortion does not eliminate the need for abortion care,” said Dr. Ushman Upadhyway, professor and public health scientist at the University of California, San Francisco who co-chaired the research study.

The study’s authors said they are not sharing data that would reveal numbers of women obtaining telehealth abortions with providers operating under shield law.

In Tennessee, abortion has been virtually banned since August 2022. Earlier the same year, and just weeks before the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision ending a Constitutional right to abortion, Gov. Bill Lee signed into law a measure that made telehealth abortion a Class E felony for providers. The law does not apply to patients.

There have been no legal challenges to abortion providers operating in states with shield laws. Currently, California Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Washington have adopted some form of shield law protecting medication abortion prescribers from legal action and liability.

The study found that the number of abortions sought nationally increased from an average of 82,000 per month in 2022 to 86,000 in 2023, a slight increase that was nevertheless surprised the researches who expected abortion numbers to dip.  Some states saw significant increases in abortions in the 18 months since the Supreme Court ruling — among them California, Florida and Illinois.

Illinois is among the closest destinations for Tennessee women seeking abortions and the site of CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health, a clinic opened by Memphis providers to provide abortions to the increasing number of women traveling to Illinois from states with abortion bans, including patients in Tennessee.

Not surprisingly, the data — which lists state-by-state abortion tallies by month — shows no abortions performed in Tennessee since July 2022, when a legal challenge to a then-six week abortion, then tied up in court, was immediately implemented then quickly followed by the total ban a month later.

“We are grateful to live in a state that respects the right to life of its citizens, even the most vulnerable,” Will Brewer, legal counsel for Tennessee Right to Life, said in response to a request for comment about the report. “We are proud that Tennessee law is protecting women and their children from the tragedy of abortion and that there are children alive today because of our protections.”

Kambui Bomani

Kambui Bomani is the general assignment and breaking news reporter for The Daily Memphian. He is a graduate of Jackson State University’s multimedia journalism program and earned a master’s degree in digital journalism from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. His work has been published in Pro Football Focus, The Southside Stand, HBCU Legends, FanSided and Wisconsin Sports Heroics.