By BILLY DIXON
When trying to convince me to come back to sportswriting, John Moorehouse promised it was like riding a bike. It’s been more than 15 years since I’ve written an article or column. It feels like a lifetime ago. But with John’s promise in mind, let’s buckle our helmet and get both feet on the pedals.
As a former member of the Tennessee baseball team, John asked me to share my insider’s insight with I-81 readers. Here we go:
If you relied on message boards and social media posts, you’d be convinced this 2026 Tennessee team was terrible. Let’s pump the brakes on that.
We’re trying to compare this team to the impossible standard set by Tony Vitello‘s teams of the last three years – which includes – in my opinion – the best college baseball team ever (perhaps we can go down that road another time).
Let’s be clear … this is not a Josh Elander vs. Vitello thing. While Vitello brought an energy and fire we haven’t seen yet from Elander, they have much the same coaching philosophy. After all, the two worked hand in hand for years.
We hit the midway point of the baseball season this coming Sunday, making this a good time to review. Looking back, there have no doubt been some frustrations with this version of the Vols.
Make no mistake, though, this is a good baseball team. And it just might end up being great.
How do I justify that? By setting aside what was and looking at what is.
We’re used to seeing balls fly out of Lindsey Nelson Stadium in record setting bunches. This isn’t that kind of roster, but they are still a potent team. Currently, out of 304 Division 1 baseball teams, Tennessee ranks 10th in doubles, 25th in homers, and 41st in slugging. That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems offensively – we’ll touch on that in a moment – but it’s also not too shabby.
What about pitching – where, under Frank Anderson, the Vols were always at the top of the rankings. Well, they are currently 18th in ERA, 9th in WHIP, 13th in walks allowed, 12th in strikeouts per nine innings, and 4th in K to walk ratio.
For good measure, this is the 11th best fielding team in the country.
All these ingredients make for a team capable of winning big. But the best is yet to come.
The everyday lineup has consistently consisted of one senior, three juniors, one freshman, and eight sophomores. On the mound, the standard four starters are a senior, two sophomores, and a freshman. Out of the pen, the most frequent to get the call consist of three juniors, four sophomores, and three freshmen.
I’ve not gone through everyone’s roster, but I feel comfortable in saying this is one of, if not the youngest team in all of college baseball – particularly in power conferences.
If everything clicks right, this team could have College World Series potential by the end of the season. Simply making the postseason will be the biggest challenge.
The Vols currently stand 18-7, 3-3. The schedule ahead is brutal. When the easiest weekends appear to be the next two and those foes are Vanderbilt and LSU, you know it’s a gauntlet. The good news is, everyone in the league is facing the same test. South Carolina and Missouri seem to be the only two Southeastern Conference teams with no real chance at a postseason berth.
With 24 conference games remaining (and seven midweek games), it will take a 13-11 mark the rest of the way to have any chance to host a regional. Tennessee hosted last year with a 16-14 conference record.
Don’t count on finishing up 7-0 in the midweek. In the last two weeks alone, Georgia, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Missouri (twice), Texas (twice), Vandy, Oklahoma, and Bama have lost midweek games to unranked opponents. In fact, Tennessee is the only SEC team yet to lose a midweek game this season.
For the sake of projection, let’s say Tennessee wins six of those. Add in 13 more conference wins and the Vols finish 37-19. That should host. Auburn and Florida State hosted last year with 38 wins. Just to make a regional, they’ll need a minimum of a 12-18 overall SEC record (9-15 in remaining games). To be safe, you need 13-17. A 14-16 record is virtually guaranteed.
What will it take to get there? In short, more consistent offensive production. One of the biggest differences in this team compared to year’s past is lack of stat padding in midweek games. The Vols are winning, they’re just not blowing people out and hitting four or five home runs per game in the process. That leads to the perception that this team is struggling, while in reality, their overall SEC stats through two weeks place them near the top in most categories.They still must improve.
Tennessee has struggled with men on base. Over the last week, starting with the first Missouri game, the Vols went 3-for-13, 2-for-12, 5-for-13, and 4-for-13 with runners on base. Not terrible, but not good enough. In the same vein, they just aren’t stringing hits together. Only five times all season through 25 games have the Vols had back-to-back-to-back hits. Only twice have they hit back-to-back home runs and that was in game 1 and game 3 of the season.
The baffling thing, and what makes this harder to fix, is that it’s not any one or two players. Every player that’s had multiple starts has had hot and cold stretches. With the exception of the Tennessee Tech game, they’ve not had a lineup clicking at the same time. That’s youth for you – and it’s also why I’m confident this metric will improve in the back half of the season. Elander keeps tweaking the lineup looking for the right combination.
The Vols get their next chance to move the ship forward this weekend in Nashville with a three-game set versus Vandy.
The Commodores (14-12, 2-4) have struggled. They’re coming off a sweep at the hands of Mississippi State last weekend. This is not a team to be overlooked, however. They were ranked in the preseason top 25 and despite their overall struggles, have wins over LSU (2) and Texas Tech.
The ‘Dores bat .301 as a team, led by Mike Mancini (.348) and Brodie Johnston (.347). As a team, they’ve hit 56 homers, compared to 39 for the Vols. On the mound, Vandy has mixed and matched starters, but the most consistent is Connor Fennell. He’s 2-1 with a 5.74 ERA with a 5.5 to 1 K/BB ratio.
Pitching has been a problem for them. They have a team ERA of 5.54 compared to 3.39 from the Vols..
The weekend starts on Friday with a 8:00 ET first pitch on ESPNU. Saturday is slated for 2 p.m. on the SEC Network, and Sunday at Noon on ESPN2.