Blake Burke, Kavares Tears rack up Second-Team All-SEC, All-Defensive nods

Tennessee first baseman Blake Burke and outfielder Kavares Tears earned two recognitions each when the Southeastern Conference unveiled the 2024 baseball postseason awards Monday afternoon as the duo was recognized as Second-Team All-SEC players and members of the All-Defensive Team.  

It’s the first postseason award from the conference for Tears in his three-year career and the first for Burke since being named to the All-Freshman squad in 2022.

In total, six Volunteers were recognized on Monday as Tears and Burke are joined by second baseman Christian Moore and outfielder Dylan Dreiling, who were named First-Team All-SEC, and shortstop Dean Curley, who was announced as a member on the All-Freshman squad. Starting pitcher Drew Beam was also named the league’s Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Tennessee clinched a share of the SEC regular season title on the final day of the regular season with a 4-1 win over South Carolina, coupled with a 12-4 Vanderbilt win over Kentucky. The Vols and Wildcats finished conference play with identical 22-8 records in conference play, but Tennessee owns the tiebreaker and will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament this week due to owning the tiebreaker from winning the three-game series in April.

Burke’s bounce back junior campaign was nothing short of impressive as the first baseman finished second on the squad with a .359 batting average while hitting .341 in SEC play. He was among the national leaders with 23 doubles on the season while belting 16 home runs and driving in 50 runs in the process. Burke scored 56 runs, totaled 151 bases and stole eight bases on nine attempts. One of the greatest improvements for Burke in 2024 was that of his glove as the first baseman registered just five errors on 378 put outs.

The Brentwood, Calif. native was named to both the D1 Baseball and Perfect Game Midseason All-American teams and was also announced as a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy – the award given annually to the national college baseball player of the year.

Burke broke the Tennessee program record for career home runs earlier this season, passing his predecessor Luc Lipcius with 41 home runs, but he current sits second in the category now with 46 career long balls. Teammate Christian Moore has stormed ahead with 54 homers in his career. 

Finally healthy, Tears broke into the starting nine for Tennessee this spring and has been a constant in the heart of the order. The redshirt-sophomore finished the regular season hitting .339 at the plate with 16 home runs and 43 RBI. The outfielder scored 61 runs, totaled 120 bases and drilled an impressive 16 doubles. Tears finished second to Dreiling with 35 walks on the season and failed to commit an error in the outfield all season long while splitting time between right and centerfield. The strong-armed athlete tallied three outfield assists while registered 68 putouts.   

Tennessee concluded the 2024 regular season with a 46-10 overall record and 22-8 tally in conference play. The Vols won their last nine conference series in-a-row and have only lost games in back-to-back fashion one time this season, back on March 16-17 at Alabama.

Top-seeded UT will await the winner of Tuesday’s (8) Vanderbilt and (9) Florida bout and begin its journey through the SEC Tournament on Wednesday at 5:30 pm eastern time.

2024 All-SEC Teams

2024 SEC Baseball Awards
Player of the Year: Charlie Condon, Georgia
Pitcher of the Year: Hagen Smith, Arkansas
Freshman of the Year: Gavin Grahovac, Texas A&M
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Drew Beam, Tennessee
Coach of the Year: Nick Mingione, Kentucky

First Team All-SEC

C: Jackson Appel, Texas A&M
1B: Jac Caglianone, Florida
2B: Christian Moore, Tennessee
3B: Charlie Condon, Georgia
SS: Justin Lebron, Alabama*
SS: David Mershon, Mississippi State*
OF: Braden Montgomery, Texas A&M
OF: Jace LaViolette, Texas A&M
OF: Dylan Dreiling, Tennessee
SP: Hagen Smith, Arkansas
SP: Khal Stephen, Mississippi State
RP: Evan Aschenbeck, Texas A&M
DH/UT: Ike Irish, Auburn*
DH/UT: Nick Lopez, Kentucky*

Second Team All-SEC

C: Cole Messina, South Carolina
1B: Blake Burke, Tennessee
2B: Peyton Stovall, Arkansas
3B: Tommy White, LSU
SS: Wehiwa Aloy, Arkansas
OF: Kavares Tears, Tennessee
OF: Ryan Waldschmidt, Kentucky
OF: Dakota Jordan, Mississippi State
SP: Ryan Prager, Texas A&M
SP: Luke Holman, LSU
RP: Griffin Herring, LSU
DH/UT: Andrew Fischer, Ole Miss

Freshman All-SEC Team

Gavin Grahovac, Texas A&M
Gabe Gaeckle, Arkansas
Justin Lebron, Alabama
Dean Curley, Tennessee
Tre Phelps, Georgia
Caden Sorrell, Texas A&M
Zane Adams, Alabama
Steven Milam, LSU
Ashton Larson, LSU
Cade Belyeu, Auburn
Liam Peterson, Florida
Nolan Souza, Arkansas

SEC All-Defensive Team

C: Fernando Gonzalez, Georgia
1B: Blake Burke, Tennessee
2B: Emilien Pitre, Kentucky
3B: Jared Sprague-Lott, Arkansas*
3B: Mitchell Daly, Kentucky*
SS: Justin Lebron, Alabama
OF: Braden Montgomery, Texas A&M
OF: Kavares Tears, Tennessee
OF: Peyton Holt, Arkansas*
OF: Jace LaViolette, Texas A&M
P: Mason Moore, Kentucky