Griffin Merritt shares key to Tennessee hitting its peak

Tennessee picked one heck of a moment to find its groove. After falling somewhat short of expectations at different points of the regular season and SEC play, the Volunteers still find themselves in the Super Regionals after going in and sweeping the Clemson Regional.

To graduate OF Griffin Merritt, they were able to do so because of how they stumbled during the season. During media on Thursday, he explained how the trails and tribulations have better prepared them for the pressure of postseason baseball than if their season had technically gone as planned.

“I think this team was always a good team. I think this team had growing pains, more than maybe the fans here were used to, especially last year. There was a lot of new faces and that takes some time,” Merritt said. “But those lessons and those tougher days have kind of built you up for this part of the season. We’ve been down in games. We’ve had to come back in games, we’ve had things that haven’t gone our way this season.”

“Deal with it and move on. I think that’s the best mindset you can have at this point of the year,” said Merritt. “We’ve kind of seen the best of days and worst of days. That, honestly, prepares you better than if it was just smooth sailing the whole season, you face an adversity late, and you might struggle to respond.”

Tennessee finished the regular season at 38-18 and just cracked .500 in the SEC with a 16-14 record. That was much different from what the Vols experienced a year ago. They lost just nine games in 2022 before falling short in the Knoxville Super Regional to Notre Dame.

Things weren’t looking much better for them as Texas A&M sent them home in one and done fashion from the SEC Tournament. Still, once they arrived in Clemson, a switch flipped. After an 8-1 win over Charlotte, they earned a ton of momentum with a 6-5 win in 14 innings over the hosting Tigers. Then, needing only one win to advance, they picked up their Super Regional berth with another victory over the 49ers.

Not everything went Tennessee’s way from February to May. However, all that matters is that, at the moment, Merritt and his teammates are playing some of their best ball in June. Now, from here, all they’ll need to do is keep that roll going against Southern Miss in Hattiesburg this weekend.