Dalton Bargo 'bounces back' with historic day at the plate

Tennessee utility player Dalton Bargo didn’t have the best first weekend against Hofstra for the Vols. After earning the Opening Day start in left field, the junior didn’t start the final two games but did appear off the bench. He was 0-for-5 on the weekend with two strikeouts and an error in the field.

Complicating things for the first baseman, left fielder, catcher, third baseman, designated hitter or whatever else he could be playing for Tennessee baseball on a given day is the fact that there are some freshmen chomping at the bit to get at-bats.

Chris Newstrom picked up starts in left field the rest of the weekend. Manny Marin started twice at third base. Levi Clark got work as the designated hitter and some innings behind the plate while Jay Abernathy played in all three games, logging some work in left field as well.   

Bargo entered the season as the projected starting first baseman, but due to Andrew Fischer’s lingering shoulder [minor] injury, the latter started all three games at first base against Hofstra. That only adds to the complexity of where Bargo fits in best right now on the lineup card.

Regardless, the game goes on and Bargo got another crack at the starting lineup Tuesday evening as the Vols demolished UNC Asheville 29-4 in seven innings. It was a great day for the ‘forgot man’ as Bargo collected three hits, homered twice (one grand slam) and drove in five runs.

That’ll do.   

“It felt really good. Kind of a slower weekend getting going, but I just wanted to have fun at the plate and hit something hard,” the junior told the media postgame. “I was fortunate enough to get a couple of pitches to do so. It was good to kind of have that game to get going.”

Bargo kicked off the second inning with a solo home run. As the nine-run frame ventured on with the Vols ‘batting around,’ Bargo was back to the plate with the bases loaded. He crushed a 2-0 pitch over the centerfield wall for a grand slam.

“They were both fastballs over the center of the plate,” the slugger reflected. “I wasn’t trying to do too much – just put good barrel on it and got good ball flight.”

The junior later singled in the contest and scored four times.

“He’s got a knack for responding, when he’s not happy, with determination. Seems to be a more simplified approach and, again, more determined,” coach Tony Vitello said of Bargo afterwards. “Just kind of on a mission to do what he wants to do.”

With the two, second-inning home runs, Bargo joined former Vols Kelly Edmundson, Sonny Cortez and Luc Lipcius who accomplished the same feat of two home runs in one inning – the only four players to have done so in program history. Edmundson did so against Belmont on May 16, 2006 in the 8th inning while Cortez wrote his name in the record books in the first inning against North Carolina on January 30, 1998. Lipcius homered twice against Notre Dame in Super Regional play in 2022, tying Evan Russell for the (then) program home run title.

The game was also the third of which Bargo has crushed two home runs in a single game while wearing a Tennessee uniform as he did so last season at Auburn and against Evansville in the Super Regional. To put it into another light, Bargo has 10 career home runs with the Vols and only four have come in one-game increments.

Also notable, his second inning grand slam was already the third of the young season for Tennessee as he joins Hunter Ensley and Reese Chapman who did so against Hofstra. The Vols blasted a Southeastern Conference record 12 grand slams in 2024, which was two shy of tying the Division I record.    

So, quite the day for Bargo at the plate. What’s this mean for him moving forward with so many bats deserving of cracking the starting lineup? Time will tell, but it’s a day-to-day approach for the team-first veteran.

“It’s definitely a challenge for sure,” Bargo said of pressing each at-bat. “Everybody knows who they are and what kind of player they are. It kind of took me a weekend to figure that out. If everyone just plays their role – everyone is going to play a part at some point throughout the year and we are going to have a lot of pieces to put in there at any point.”