The college baseball season is just three and a half weeks away as Tennessee’s preseason practice is under way ahead of Josh Elander’s first season as head coach. With the season nearing, Baseball America released its preseason top 25 Monday.
Baseball America pegged Tennessee as the No. 13 team in the country in the preseason. It’s the third preseason poll that has the Vols in the top 15. Perfect Game pegged Tennessee at No. 3 in its preseason rankings while D1Baseball has the Vols at No. 14.
Tennessee is one 10 SEC teams in the top 25 coming in behind No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Mississippi State, No. 5 Auburn, No. 6 Georgia, No. 8 Texas and No. 10 Arkansas while coming in ahead of No. 16 Ole Miss, No. 17 Vanderbilt, No. 19 Oklahoma and No. 22 Florida.
Josh Elander’s first Tennessee team has home series against LSU and Texas while heading on the road for series against Georgia, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. The Vols also have a lone non conference matchup against top-ranked UCLA as part of the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series in Arlington, Texas.
It’s been a turbulent offseason of change for Tennessee baseball. Highly successful head coach Tony Vitello left to be the manager of the San Fransisco Giants taking with him a small handful of assistants and staffers including Frank Anderson and Quentin Eberhardt.
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Danny White tabbed associate head coach Josh Elander as the program’s new head coach. Elander retained a number of assistants including Ross Kivett. He promoted Josh Reynolds to replace Anderson, hired Florida associate head coach Chuck Jeroloman to replace himself as associate head coach and hired Keegan Knoll to replace Eberhardt.
On the field, Tennessee returns veterans Reese Chapman, Ariel Antigua and Stone Lawless in the field and is hoping rising sophomores Levi Clark, Chris Newstrom, Manny Marin and Jay Abernathy take a second year step forward.
The Vols added a number of transfers who could make an impact at the plate led by Virginia’s Henry Ford and including Rice’s Blaine Brown, Bowling Green’s Garrett Wright and San Diego State’s Finley Bates.
Tennessee’s pitching staff projects to be even better than its offense. Sunday starter Tegan Kuhns is back and looking for even more after a solid freshman season. LHP Brandon Arvidson also projects as a weekend starter after a strong back half of the 2025 season. Rising sophomore Brayden Krenzel is another returnee after impressing during his freshman campaign.
The Vols are also active with their pitching staff in the portal, adding Virginia’s Evan Blanco, Kennesaw State’s Bo Rhudy, Rutgers’ Landon Mack and ETSU’s Brady Frederick. Freshman LHP Cameron Appenzeller could also make an impact in his debut collegiate season.
