Versatile Blaine Brown details 'no-brainer' decision to join Vols

Blaine Brown was pretty good as a true freshman this past season. He racked up First-Team All-American Athletic Conference honors as a designated hitter with Rice and even appeared in seven games on the mound with four starts.

The 2-way talent decided it was best to explore his opportunities by season’s end and entered his name into the transfer portal. It didn’t take long for Tony Vitello to make the call. From there, it was practically a done deal.

“Coach Vitello calls me. We’re talking and he wants me to come on a visit,” Brown told Volquest prior to his commitment announcement. “As soon as I walked into the baseball facility, I just fell in love with it.

“Going into it, I had a bunch of other places lined up after that and everybody around me was just telling me ‘when you know, you know.’ I knew right when I stepped on the campus, this is where I want to be.”

The rising sophomore was on campus this past weekend. Spoke things over with his family the first of the week. He committed to Tennessee on Wednesday and made his announcement public on Thursday.

What was the pitch to become a Volunteer? Brown really didn’t need one – only the resumes of Frank Anderson and Josh Elander. For a 2-way player, there’s not many better combos in all of college baseball.

“Just getting the opportunity to work with Coach Anderson. I know all the players he’s dealt with, as well as Coach E [Josh Elander] – all the players he’s dealt with,” Brown raved. “They know what they’re doing. They can really change players. So, it was pretty easy choice.”

Brown led the Owls with a .292 batting average, .493 slugging percentage, 61 hits, 38 runs batted in, 12 doubles, 10 home runs and 103 total bases. He registered 18 multi-hit games and sported eight contests with multiple runs batted in.

The athlete appeared in seven games with four starts on the mound, pitching to a 20.77 ERA in just 4.1 innings pitched. The southpaw allowed 13 runs off nine hits with 12 strikeouts and 10 walks.

Brown primarily focused on the designated hitter position outside of pitching after suffering minor shoulder inflammation a month into the season. Following his appearance against Incarnate Word on March 18, Brown had just one more pitching outing on the year against Charlotte on May 4 while making 11 appearances in right field and two in left.  

The new Tennessee pledge got a firsthand experience of what the Volunteer baseball program was all about back in March, starting on the mound against the Vols in Houston.

“Just playing against them, it just felt like a team that really wants to win and knows how to do it,” Brown recalled. “Just a bunch of guys who want to play their best and be the best. After that I was like, that’s definitely a team I would love to play for.”

At the end of the day, it’s about winning and development for Brown. That circled back around to the head man himself, who oversaw the brief recruiting process in the transfer portal.  

“On that field, he’s fiery and he’s very competitive and I love that,” the new commit said of Vitello. “I love a coach who stands behind us players and who wants to win just as bad as them. And then off the field, he’s probably one of the coolest dudes I’ve met. He’s just a really, really good guy. And then get on the field, switch flips and he wants to win.”

Brown becomes the eighth transfer portal commitment for Tennessee this cycle and the second 2-way addition. He will do a little bit of everything for the Vols in 2026, which includes pitching, hitting, playing the outfield and running the bases.

That bodes well for a 34-man roster.