A decade ago, Tennessee winning 38 baseball games, going .500 in Southeastern Conference play and reaching the NCAA tournament as a regional second seed would have been cause for parades in Knoxville.
Then came the Tony Vitello era, which included five consecutive NCAA super regional appearances from 2021-25, three journeys to the College World Series during that span, and the claiming of the 2024 national championship. That obviously raised the program bar to incredibly lofty heights.
Vitello left the Volunteers last October for the opportunity to manage the San Francisco Giants, and hitting coach Josh Elander took over and extended Tennessee’s record run to seven straight NCAA tourney invitations. The Vols, however, fell flat in this year’s 64-team field with an 0-2 showing at the Chapel Hill Regional to conclude Elander’s debut season at 38-22.
“It’s been a crazy year for us, and I love how they stayed in it,” Elander said Saturday afternoon in a press conference following a 5-4 loss to VCU. “It was a lot this year. It was not smooth sailing. Our league is unforgiving, and sometimes when you get punched, it’s hard to get back up.
“Because of the makeup of some of our guys, we were able to do that and fight our way into the postseason.”