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• Raleigh looking for answers
• Vols get an earful from coaches after latest loss
• Davis' heroics can't save Vols

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Kentrail Davis doesn't want to hear it.

A weekend series loss at Auburn would be a worst-case scenario for Tennessee baseball's freshman phenom, who also happens to be an Alabama native.

Pride is on the line.

Davis and the Vols (15-7, 4-2 SEC) head to Auburn for a three-game series beginning 7 tonight.

"My whole family will be there and I've got a couple of buddies who play for Auburn so I'm really excited," Davis said. "We've got to beat them. I don't want to hear about it when I go home."

That's not the only incentive for the UT center fielder from Theodora, Ala.

While the Tigers (16-9, 2-4) routinely start five freshmen position players and will start three freshmen pitchers against the Vols, Davis didn't make the Tigers' recruiting cut.

"Auburn was the first school to call me and recruit me," he said. "I heard from them four or five times, but they never offered me."

That's a decision the Auburn coaches are probably rethinking about now.

Davis is hitting a UT team-high .386 with four home runs and 19 RBIs.

"He just wows us," UT head coach Todd Raleigh said. "He's the best freshman I've ever coached. Kentrail's in a different league than the rest of us.

"He brings the fight every day and you don't see many freshmen who do that. He's unbelievable."

It didn't take long for the former 14th-round draft pick of the Colorado Rockies to begin earning his teammates' respect.

"He's a freshman sensation," UT senior Shawn Griffin said of Davis. "I call him the Ninja Turtle because he's jacked out of his mind.

"I come in here as a senior, we're in there squatting, and I'm putting 415 (pounds) on there thinking I'm a big dog. He comes over and puts 515 or 500 on there and he does it like it's nothing."

Davis didn't have his best series at Georgia last weekend, but he almost single handedly willed the Vols to a victory March 19 at Louisville with two home runs, a double and a game-saving diving catch in center.

If one thing has become clear to Davis, it's that you never know what to expect in college baseball.

Auburn is a prime example. After getting swept by SEC East leading Florida, the Tigers answered back by taking two of three and nearly sweeping previously unbeaten Kentucky last weekend.

"We're still right there at the top and there's still no pressure," Davis said. "I think we're surprising a lot of people who were expecting us to be last.

"Baseball is just weird. Anything can happen and I see that now. It's going to be a battle this weekend."

The Vols have relied on steady starting pitching from Steve Crnkovich, Bryan Morgado and Nick Hernandez, plus recent success out of the bullpen from Aaron Everett, Danny Wiltz and Jeff Lockwood.

Offensively, the Vols haven't exactly been a juggernaut, but they've gotten a boost in recent surges from freshman P.J. Polk and previously slumping catcher Yan Gomes, shortstop Danny Lima and first baseman Lockwood,

Auburn is just another challenge even though the Tigers may be the only team in the SEC playing more young players than the Vols.

"They are young and I see a lot of similarities," Raleigh said. "But I think Auburn is a good club. They got swept the first week, but rebounded well and they're one of those teams that always plays well at home.

"We know it's going to be tough."

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.