Undefeated Vols ready to begin new challenge in Southeastern Conference play

If there were any questions about a national title hangover entering the 2025 season, Tennessee baseball has certainly dismissed the notion. The 17-0 start to the new campaign is the best start in program history and the Vols have won 11 games by 10 or more runs.

Pitching has been good. Hitting has been close to elite. The vibes are high. Everything is clicking in Knoxville right now.

“The team is doing really well,” relief pitcher Thomas Crabtree said on Tuesday. “As a whole, everyone is playing the best baseball we can. Defense is locked down and everybody’s bats are just elite.”

It hasn’t been perfect – Tony Vitello would be sure to remind everyone of that – but it’s been pretty impressive. Tennessee is currently ranked No. 1 in four of the five major college baseball polls while sporting the national strikeout leader (Liam Doyle) and a true freshman who boasts a top-five batting average (Levi Clark) in the country.

“Personally, I think I’m alright. I’m more happy about how the team looks as a whole,” infielder Andrew Fischer said this week. “Just kind of firing on all cylinders and everyone looks really sharp right now. I think this is going to be an exciting series coming up.”   

This weekend should be an exciting series – no doubt. Southeastern Conference play begins and everybody is aware of the challenge ahead. No. 7 Florida is up first, a team that makes routine trips to Omaha, and it doesn’t get much easier after that.   

The Gators (16-2) have dropped two games to date with one being in the midweek where, like Tennessee, pitchers are rotated in and out just about every inning. The other was in a game three weekend series against Miami, so nothing wrong with that.

“They are a well-oiled team. It’s going to be a dogfight,” Fischer continued. “They are going to come out and are going to give us their best guys and their best stuff. It’s plus-plus pitching. It’s plus-plus hitting. Some guys are really going to compete over there.

“It’s going to be a good one.”

Tennessee has run through its schedule to date with minimal issues. The Vols don’t have to apologize for that. There’s been some stressing moments in abnormal midweek games and a few contested ballgames in Houston at the Astros Foundation College Classic, but for the most part, it’s been cake.   

Again, Tennessee doesn’t have to apologize for that – but it needs to know (and does) a whole new season is starting on Friday.

“I know a couple of those young arms were throwing against us last year, and we were like, ‘what the hell?’ And then there’s a couple position players too that you could, I mean – I haven’t watched them play much, but you probably say the same thing, ‘what the hell is this guy doing back here,’” Tony Vitello said of Florida. “But Sully (Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan) is good at a lot of things, and one thing is just educating kids on the draft and maybe their personal circumstance, why it might be advantageous.”

Tennessee enters the weekend as the last remaining undefeated team in the country. It will lose a game (probably a few) along the way and it’s not yet been challenged the way its about to with the Gators.

Still, the Vols have played some good baseball the first month of the season and are poised to weather that storm the right way.

Buckle up. SEC play is here.