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Tennessee ties single-season school record for home runs with 158th in Knoxville Regional

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•06/02/24•

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Lindsey Nelson Stadium
Credit: Volquest

Tennessee has made a living with the long ball over the past few years. Now, in their matchup with Southern Miss in the Knoxville Regional on Sunday, the Volunteers are close to making history in the statistic.

Dean Curley hit one of four home runs for Tennessee tonight to push the top-seeded team’s lead to 8-3 versus the Eagles. It was even more significant, though, as it tied the single-season record for home runs in program history with 158, which they set just two years ago in 2022.

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In 2022, 15 different Volunteers hit home runs en route to a 57-9 record. Nine of those hit 10 or more homers with Trey Lipscomb leading the way with 22.

However, two years later in 2024, Tennessee will break that record after tying it tonight. 15 different Vols have once again hit home runs. It’s more top-heavy this time, though, with only six in double digits. Those six have just been racking them up with five of them having 17 or more, including Christian Moore with 29, which is also a single-season program record, and Billy Amick also cracking 20-plus with 21. That all helped them to led the nation this season in the statistic.

Cal Stark got it started with a home run in the fifth inning that got caught in the middle of a Tony Vitello interview on the SEC Network. Then, in the sixth and seventh, Tennessee’s bats got going with seven runs. Kavares Tears brought in three of those with his in the sixth while Dylan Dreiling and Dean Curley brought in three more with their pair in the seventh.

UPDATE: Tennessee sets single-season home run record with 159th during Knoxville Regional

Tennessee didn’t even wait an hour after tying the single-season record for home runs before going ahead and breaking it during the Knoxville Regional on Sunday.

At the top of the ninth inning, Cal Stark hit his second homer of the game to push the Volunteers’ lead to 12-3 over Southern Miss. What was far more significant, though, was the history that it made as a record-breaking, 159th home run for Tennessee in 2024, which broke the mark of the team in 2022 with 158.

Both of Stark’s home runs this evening were fun in their own ways. With his first in the fifth inning, Stark got quite the reaction out of Tony Vitello during an in-game interview on the SEC Network. This one then needs little explanation with the historic nature of it on Rocky Top.

Stark was one of four Volunteers to go yard against the Eagles. Stark started and finished it but Kavares Tears, Dylan Dreiling, Dean Curley each hit one of their own during the sixth and seventh innings. That’s where they did most of their work in their final matchup of the Knoxville Regional as a 12-3 victory has now sent the program to their fourth consecutive Super Regional.