It was natural for Tennessee to rely on its stellar weekend rotation of Chase Dollander, Chase Burns and Drew Beam during the early stages of the season, as well as the returning position player likes of Blake Burke, Jared Dickey and Christian Moore.
Now the fresh faces are settling in.
After starting all 116 games the past two seasons at Alabama, third baseman Zane Denton certainly seems at home with the No. 2 Volunteers, hitting for the cycle in Friday night’s 23-4 crushing of Morehead State and providing a sacrifice fly in Saturday afternoon’s 6-0 blanking of the Eagles.
“Just playing Tennessee last year and seeing how they did everything well — they didn’t just hit home runs,” Denton said following Friday’s performance to remember. “They played the game harder and better than everyone we played. In seeing some of the leaps some of the guys made from the year before, I just knew that this program was different and that I wanted to be part of it.”
Two other Power Five transfers, shortstop Maui Ahuna from Kansas and left fielder Griffin Merritt from Cincinnati, are thriving as well for the Vols, who completed a three-game sweep of Morehead State with Saturday night’s 6-3 dumping. The Vols and Eagles (9-7) wound up playing twice Saturday due to significant rain expected Sunday in Knoxville.