The No. 2 Tennessee Volunteers started their season off with a road loss to the unranked Arizona Wildcats on Friday. The Volunteers will get a chance to turn things around tonight. They’ll face the Grand Canyon Antelopes as they stay out west for the MLB Desert Invitational. Bettors looking for the best college baseball bets should tail this Tennessee-Grand Canyon prediction for Saturday night.
Best College Baseball Bet Today | Tennessee-Grand Canyon
Last season went well for the Tennessee Volunteers. The Vols went 57-9 overall and 25-5 in the SEC. They won the SEC tournament and earned their second college world series bid since 2005 — only to get knocked out by No. 17 Notre Dame in the Knoxville Super Regional.
Tennessee’s impressive run might be at an end, and the program doesn’t have much hardware to show for it. The team lost seven starters, five of which went in the MLB draft. Two of its new acquisitions, shortstop Maui Ahuna and outfielder Griffin Merritt, will remain unavailable tonight.
The consequences of a tough offseason reared their head in Tennessee’s opening loss to Arizona. They fell 3-1 after recording only six hits and one walk. The Vols will have a chance to right the ship offensively this evening, but the matchup with the Grand Canyon Antelopes could prove problematic.
Grand Canyon won the Western Athletic Conference last year. The team’s head coach, Andy Stankiewicz, got hired by the USC Trojans during the offseason. His longtime assistant, Gregg Wallis, had a job at Ohio State lined up but returned to GCU to replace him. The move got several of GCU’s talented players to forego the transfer portal and stick around.
GCU has a solid roster and started the year off strong. Shortstop Jacob Wilson and outfielder Homer Bush Jr. both may have professional careers in front of them. Those two helped power the Antelopes to a dominant win over UC San Diego. GCU got out to a 6-0 lead by the end of the third inning and ended up winning 12-4.
The books are treating the Volunteers like it’s still 2022 — Tennessee sits at -150 to cover a runline of 2.5 at DraftKings Sportsbook. The books are likely looking to capitalize on square bettors blindly backing the Volunteers after their dominant 2022 campaign. Taking GCU to keep this game within a two-run margin at +120 feels sharp. Readers who are new to DraftKings can score $150 in bonus bets by winning a $5 moneyline wager!
Best College Baseball Bet: Grand Canyon +2.5 (+120 for 0.25 Unit) at DraftKings
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