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Tennessee Baseball Ranks In Top 10 Of USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll

By Ryan Schumpert
- Feb 6, 2024

College baseball season is just 10 days away and the final preseason rankings came out on Tuesday. USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll was the final preseason rankings and Tennessee came in at No. 8 nationally.

The Vols are the sixth highest rated SEC team in the rankings coming in behind No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Arkansas and No. 6 Vanderbilt. Tony Vitello’s seventh Tennessee came in ahead of No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 17 Alabama and No. 21 South Carolina.

Tennessee has home matchups against LSU and South Carolina this season and has road series against Florida, Vanderbilt and Alabama.

The Vols are coming off a strong 2023 season that saw them advance to the College World Series for the second time in three seasons and earn their first College World Series victory since 2001. Tony Vitello’s sixth Tennessee team struggled the first half of the season before turning it around and making an adversity filled run to Omaha.

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Tennessee returns a number of key players from last seasons team including position starters Blake Burke, Christian Moore and Hunter Ensley and high-level starting pitcher Drew Beam. The Vols also brought in an impressive transfer portal haul including Clemson’s Billy Amick, North Carolina State’s Cannon Peebles and Wichita State’s Nate Snead.

Moore, Amick and Beam were consensus preseason All-Americans while sophomore pitcher A.J. Russell landed on NCBWA’s Preseason All-American team and Blake Burke landed on Baseball America’s Preseason All-American team.

The Preseason Coaches Poll ranked Tennessee at a similar spot of the rest of the preseason rankings. The Vols landed at No. 5 in the NCBWA’s poll, No. 8 in Baseball America’s rankings, No. 9 in D1Baseball’s rankings and No. 11 in Perfect Game’s rankings.

Tennessee baseball opens its 2024 season on Feb. 16 at the Shriner’s Children Hospital Classic in Arlington, Texas. The Vols face Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Baylor in the three games at Globe Life Field.