Tennessee, the No. 1 seed nationally, has established itself as the dominant post-pandemic baseball program.
The only thing missing is a national title.
The Volunteers’ 204 wins and 540 home runs since the start of the 2021 season are the most of any Division I program. They have won two SEC regular-season titles and two conference tournament championships.
His national-leading and program-record 159 home runs this season are the most since LSU’s 1997 “Gorilla Ball” team hit a record 188.
Now the Vols are trying to claw their way to two more wins to reach a third College World Series in four years and second in a row. The Vols will host Evansville (38-24), which beat No. 16 East Carolina for its first regional championship, in the best-of-three Knoxville Super Regional beginning Friday.
Coach Tony Vitello, hired by Tennessee in June 2017, has the Vols rolling at 12-0, winning four straight regionals.
“I think the last three years have been a compound effect of some lessons learned and some things gained by other people who came before these guys,” Vitello said.
The Vols will still have to deal with the fact that the country’s top seed hasn’t won the national title since 1999, when the CWS began its current format. For now, they are focused on trying to be among the eight teams that advance to the CWS starting June 14 in Omaha, Nebraska.
Center fielder Hunter Ensley, who played at Omaha last June, said the Vols put together three pretty complete offensive games in the regional. The message after moving forward was to enjoy briefly as one more step.
“There’s a lot to do over the rest of the week to improve this weekend, regardless of who we play,” Ensley said.
Evansville left fielder Mark Shallenberger said the key to pulling off big upsets is focusing on one pitch and one hit at a time. That’s what helped the Aces make program history.
“We’ve taken the pressure off,” Shallenberger said before double-checking to make sure Evansville’s next stop is Knoxville. “We are playing baseball. We are enjoying this incredible environment. … This ship has not sunk yet.”
Evansville will have to do something few opponents have accomplished against the Vols, who have shown their power all season. They have homered in 57 of 64 games this season, including 12 and won three games in the regional.
The worst thing for opponents is trying to figure out who to avoid with Tennessee’s power spread throughout the lineup. SEC second baseman Christian Moore has a team-high 29 and is just one of 15 different Vols with at least one home run. Six have at least 11 home runs.
Nine different Vols have had a grand slam and Tennessee tied 1996 Oklahoma (66 games) with 12 grand slams. Only 2003 Arizona State (14 in 68 games) has had more.
Vitello knows he has a great group of infielders led by 6-foot-3 first baseman Blake Burke and a pair of 6-foot-1 players in Moore and third baseman Billy Amick, who transferred from Clemson last summer. He also sees teammates who take pride and trust in each other to achieve great successes, almost coaching each other.
“You never know who it will be that day, but I think everyone participates and contributes, which makes it fun,” Vitello said.
Even when Moore, Burke and Amick, Tennessee’s top three hitters, combined to go 1-for-13 in the regional decider over Southern Miss, four different Vols combined to hit five home runs. Cal Stark had two.
Christian Ostrander saw Tennessee last year as Southern Miss’ pitching coach before being promoted last offseason. He sees Vitello with a more experienced and mature roster than a year ago when the Vols went to Hattiesburg and beat Southern Miss to clinch the program’s sixth-place finish in the CWS all-time.
Combined with Tennessee’s long lineup, Ostrander said the Vols are a handful no matter who they face next.
“You can’t catch your breath, you have to execute, and if you give them a little bit of something they can hurt you because they can do a lot of things,” Ostrander said. “It’s just a very, very, very good lineup and a very good program, very good team.”
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.