Dan Fleser
Tennessee entered Tuesday night’s game against Queens University ranked No. 1 in all of college baseball's major polls. The Vols began their reign by surrendering two runs in the first inning against the seemingly overmatched Atlantic Sun Conference opponent without allowing a hit.
UT did not lead until Dylan Dreiling slammed a three-run homer over the right-field fence with two outs in the seventh inning. The 6-3 victory at Lindsey Nelson Stadium wasn’t secure until relievers Kirby Connell and Aaron Combs strung together three strikeouts to escape a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the ninth.
In the end, coach Tony Vitello had sufficient reason to not be so high on Tennessee’s place in the polls.
“That’s something that’s voted on,” he said. “It’s voted on by very smart people. They are doing their research. But it’s still voted on.”
Much of the homework Vitello referenced is based on another number, one that is achieved, not conferred. Tuesday’s victory was Tennessee’s 40th of the season. It was the fifth consecutive full season, which excludes 2020, that the Vols have reached the coveted mark. The only other time such consistency occurred was 1993-97. It’s no coincidence that Tennessee has achieved its greatest program success during those two periods.
In the latest stretch, under Vitello, the Vols have won two SEC championships (one regular season, one tournament), won a conference division title and advanced to the College World Series twice. The two SEC championships occurred in 2022, which was the last time Tennessee was ranked No. 1.
Regardless, Vitello was smart to relish Tuesday’s clutch individual performances, rather than to savor a ranking. When the calendar flips to May, it’s more about the results and what goes into compiling victories.
“The more you can get into the heat of the fire and get repetitions at learning how to survive,” he said, “the better you are as a team and as an individual as well.”
The Vols, who are 17-7 in SEC play and a game behind Kentucky in the Eastern Division, will be back in the fire this weekend in Nashville during a three-game series against Vanderbilt. They’re coming off a series win at Florida. Overall, UT has won seven consecutive conference series after dropping two of three in the opener at Alabama.
“You better be ready to take lumps in this league, no matter who you are,” Vitello said, “And then the cool thing about it is if you can keep navigating through it or keep pushing forward, when you win, they’re the best wins in the world.”
Although the lumps ledger is decidedly in Tennessee’s favor, any sense of optimism is tempered, to a degree, by a sense of uncertainty. Vitello still believes his roster presents a Rubik’s cube sort of challenge. He’s more twisted about his pitching than anything but the coach also believes that a lineup that produced 16 runs at Florida last Saturday still can’t afford to have two or three spots go barren during any game.
“We’ve been able to win some games; we’ve been able to have some success,” he said. “But we have not found our best combination, really, of anything.”
The ongoing search then is priority No. 1.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who has covered University of Tennessee athletics since 1988. He is a member of the Tennessee Sportswriters and the U.S. Basketball Writers Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.