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LOOK: Tennessee announces opening day lineup vs. Hofstra

On3 imageby:Eric Cain•about 19 hours•

_Cainer

Tennessee Baseball
Credit: UT Athletic Communications

Tennessee skipper Tony Vitello has unveiled the 2025 opening day lineup just hours before the Vols welcome Hofstra to Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Friday afternoon.

Sophomore Dean Curley will be leadoff and play shortstop, followed by junior second baseman Gavin Kilen. Senior centerfield Hunter Ensley will hit third while Andrew Fischer will hit cleanup and start at first base. Cannon Peebles will be the designated hitter and hit sixth, freshman Manny Marin gets the nod at third base and will bat sixth while veteran utility Dalton Bargo gets the opening day start in left field. Stone Lawless will catch and hit eighth and Reese Chapman will hit ninth and play right field.  

Hofstra finished the 2024 season with a 24-33 overall record and a 13-14 mark in Coastal Athletic Association play. Head coach Frank Catalanotto, who played in the majors for 14 years and for Team Italy in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic, doesn’t have much experience returning with just two everyday players and no weekend starters. In fact, there’s 23 newcomers on the roster, including 18 freshmen.

Hofstra was preseason picked to finish No. 9 in the league and will play 17 of its first 28 games of the season on the road.  

The Vols (60-13) finished the 2024 season with the first national championship in program history and became the first team from the Southeastern Conference to eclipse the 60-win marker in a single season. Tennessee went an impressive 10-2 in the NCAA Baseball Tournament and snapped the ‘curse’ of No. 1 overall seeds not winning the title, a streak that dated back to Miami in 1999.  

Tennessee’s 60 wins last year were the most of any team since Florida State in 2002 and the most of any national champion since Wichita State in 1989. It was the second straight trip to the College World Series in Omaha for Tennessee, the third in four years and the first time the Vols played for a national title since their first trip there in 1951. 

The Vols won everything they could in 2024 – winning the SEC’s regular-season championship, the SEC Tournament championship, Knoxville Regional and Knoxville Super Regional. The team lost back-to-back games on March 16 and 17, then never lost consecutive games again. They went 7-0 while facing elimination in the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament, including coming back from down 0-1 in the best-of-three College World Series championship series against Texas A&M. 

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