With Friday opening day of the 2024 NCAA Division I baseball regular season, Patrick MacCoon provides a list of nine fun facts and predictions relating to the No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers.
1. Year of the Vols
A good marker for Tennessee baseball was set on January 23 when Todd Helton got the call to Cooperstown. The legendary Vols first baseman, closer and backup quarterback will be inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 21, which will come nearly a month after Tennessee finally makes some big noise in Omaha at the College World Series (June 14-24). Opening the season Friday at Globe Life Field, home of the World Series champion Texas Rangers, is just another good omen for Tony Vitello's squad.
2. 7,600 seating capacity
Lindsey Nelson Stadium — which sits on the historic corner of Todd Helton Drive and Pat Summit Street — will very soon shatter its attendance record of 5,086 set in the 1995 season when national player of the year Helton led Tennessee to the College World Series with a 3-1 victory over Oklahoma State. Major renovations at LNS will add nearly 3,000 seats to one of the greatest home-field advantages in college baseball.
3. Seven players hit 10-plus home runs
The 2022 murderers' row lineup that produced a school record 158 home runs will be hard to beat, but Tennessee will crack the top 10 in the country in round-trippers this season. In fact, the Vols will be closer to No. 1 than 10. Expect plenty of fireworks from Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick, Cannon Peebles, Dylan Dreiling, Bradke Lohry and Robin Villeneuve.
4. 0.89
This was A.J. Russell's minuscule earned run average in 24 appearances as a freshman. The Nashville native tied Helton for the school record in lowest ERA given a minimum of 30 innings pitched. Russell should dazzle in a move to the starting rotation, and he gets the ball on opening day.
5. Pitching in the zone
Frank Anderson is the best pitching coach in the country. Helping spark the greatest four-year stretch in program history has been an extremely sharp pitching staff that simply doesn't walk many batters. The Vols' average for walks per nine innings allowed over the past four seasons are 2.06, 2.49, 2.48 and 2.90. The previous school record was 3.40 in 1994 — with Helton on the team.
6. 382
This is the total number of home runs hit by Tennessee over the past three seasons, which is good for 1.9 per game. This is incredible to think about considering the Vols hit just 88 home runs from 2012-15, a stretch in which the program believed in the small-ball concept, complete with 204 sacrifice bunts.
7. Chris Burke's legendary finish
While hitting .400 for a season will never happen again in Major League Baseball, there were close to 30 Division I players who did so in 2023. One of those was Clemson transfer Billy Amick, who will now handle the hot corner for Tennessee. Chris Burke was the last Vol to hit over .400 in a season — a robust .435 with 52 extra-base hits in 2001.
8. 2007
This was the last time a Tennessee baseball team not led by Vitello had more wins (34) than the Vols have had home wins over the past two seasons (38 in 2022, 33 in 2023). Tennessee has an .843 winning percentage (113-21) at home over the last four seasons.
9. April 13 fun
This day might be even more fun than a day in the fall at Neyland Stadium, which is hard to top. Fans will get to see the Orange-and-White spring football game on this Saturday and then after can swing over to LNS to watch Tennessee take on reigning College World Series champion LSU.
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.