Dan Fleser
Tennessee’s baseball season had barely finished on Sunday and Tony Vitello already was rushing on to the offseason.
“Gotta go get guys,” said the coach, sounding as if he had a bus to catch.
Three days later, the Vols got a guy with a commitment from East Tennessee transfer Brady Frederick, the Southern Conference pitcher of the year this season.
Recruiting seemingly never rests. While the transfer portal, pardon the pun, puts a different spin on the process, the real urgency for Tennessee derives from its ambitions. The Vols have been restocking their roster since winning a national championship in 2024. At least they can devote more time this year toward that end.
“Last summer was tough,’’ Vitello said. “We weren’t on our campus. It just didn’t work out as well as we would want to.
“. . . you always want to recruit better. So, that’s what’s going to go on this summer.”
Softball operates on a similar timetable and their ambitions are just as pressing after returning to the Women’s College World Series this season. Maybe more so. After nine trips to Oklahoma City, the Lady Vols have yet to win a national championship. But star pitcher Karlyn Pickens, who has one season left, affords them their best chance since the Monica Abbott era.
With that in mind, Thursday was not a good day with multiple reports, including D1 Softball and the Knoxville News Sentinel, that third baseman Taylor Pannell has entered the portal. She has a career .351 batting average with 25 home runs.
Adding to next season’s roster was a part of the Lady Vols’ official business even while the pivotal moments of 2025 were still unfolding. Maddi Rutan visited campus before Tennessee hosted a regional. The addition of the Eastern Kentucky transfer was announced before the team departed for Oklahoma.
While at the WCWS, news broke of the commitments of two Boise State transfers – Makenzie Butt and Sophia Knight. The Lady Vols announced their additions the day after returning.
Both baseball and softball addressed specific needs with these new players.
Frederick, who was the fourth pitcher to commit to Tennessee out of the portal, will boost the Vols’ bullpen. The right-hander from Knoxville, who has a sidearm, submarine-like pitching motion, had the workload of a starter (77.2 innings) but threw exclusively in relief, recording eight victories, four saves and a 2.67 earned run average. He pitched 3.2 innings in ETSU’s 7-6 victory over the Vols on March 18 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, allowing two runs on two hits while striking out four.
The Lady Vols need offense, now more than ever with the Pannell news, and the three players they’ve added figure to help. Rutan, who was a two-way standout at Eastern Kentucky, hit 13 home runs this season and matched the school’s single-season record for RBI with 61.
Butt, the Mountain West Conference freshman of the year, also earned freshman All-American honors after hitting 22 homers and driving in 77 runs. Knight, who was the conference’s freshman of the year and a freshman A-A in 2024, started 115 games at Boise State and scored 114 runs. She has a career on-base percentage of .482 and has stolen 45 bases.
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, U.S Basketball Writers and Greater Knoxville Sports Halls of Fame. He can be reached at danfleser3@gmail.com.