Christian Moore moved to designated hitter for Saturday’s postseason game
With a spot to the College World Series on the line, Tennessee has shuffled up its starting lineup for game two of the Knoxville Super Regional on Saturday afternoon from Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The star was removed from late in Friday’s game one win over the Purple Panthers in what skipper Tony Vitello described after the game as ‘soreness.’
“He had some soreness in his leg. I’ll go right next door and be able to speak more specific,” the coach told the media afterwards. “But with the lead, Ariel [Antigua] been kind of our guy on defense. Sometimes we do it with Dean [Curley], sometimes we do it with Billy[Amick] — based off where the lineup is at. And in this particular occasion we kind of killed two birds with one stone lead.
“Remove any doubt there with what was going on with soreness and do our thing with Ariel getting in the game and what do you know, the first hitter hits the right to him.”
Vitello was asked in a follow-up if Moore would play on Saturday and his response was yes, ‘100 percent.’ So, Saturday’s lineup proves him right, he’s just getting a day off of field work.
We will follow up with Vitello after the ballgame on the status of Moore.
The second baseman registered a pair of hits and blasted a home run in Friday’s win over Evansville. He. came around and scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a Blake Burke double. This came after an error led to three unearned runs charged to AJ Causey in the top of the frame.
Bradke Lohry will get the nod at the keystone and bat eighth in the order. He started the first weekend series of the season at the Shriner’s College Showdown in Arlington, TX, but has not seen much playing time since. He did, however, pick up a start at designated hitter during the midweek in April.