Tennessee baseball’s run at the SEC Tournament came to a close Wednesday evening when Arkansas knocked off the Vols 8-4 at the Hoover Met. The Razorbacks hit two first inning home runs off of Evan Blanco while jumping out to an early 4-0 lead and despite a nice middle inning stretch, Tennessee never pulled even in the loss.
Following the game, former Arkansas pitcher Zach Root took a shot at Tennessee on his Instagram story.
Posting Arkansas’ final score graphic on his story, Root added the caption “some things never change” with two shrug emojis.
Zach Root holding nothing back pic.twitter.com/aeJT916bGn
— G🅰️rrett Wood (@mighty_gerot) May 21, 2026
Root has past beef with Tennessee. Vol fans will remember Root from last season’s Fayetteville Super Regional. He allowed just one run in seven innings pitched in Arkansas’ 4-3 game one win.
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The left-handed pitched chirped with Tennessee standout Andrew Fischer multiple times including a profanity laced tirade at Fischer when the Vols’ first baseman grounded into an inning-ending double play in the sixth inning.
Last time Arkansas and Tennessee played was cinema 🔥
Andrew Fischer (UT) had spit towards Arkansas catcher (Helfrick), and said some explicit words throughout the series.
Zach Root (Ark) responds with a strike out and double play, then has some explicit words for Fischer. 👀 pic.twitter.com/aT0n6jCR0J
— Random SEC (@therandomsec) May 20, 2026
Root is not wrong about Arkansas owning Tennessee in head-to-head baseball matchups. The Razorbacks have won five straight, 10 of the last 11 and 15 of 18 games since Tony Vitello and Josh Elander left Dave Van Horn’s staff for promotions at Tennessee.
Those matchups include the 2021 SEC Tournament Championship and the 2025 Fayetteville Super Regional. Tennessee has been unfortunate as its two best teams during that stretch (2022 and 2024) did not face off against Arkansas.
Of course, Tennessee got the ultimate prize that Arkansas has never attained when the Vols defeated Texas A&M to win the 2024 National Championship.
Arkansas enters its SEC Tournament quarterfinal matchup with a 37-19 (17-13 SEC) record and projects to be a regional host site. Tennessee enters the NCAA Tournament with a 38-20 (15-15 SEC) record and projects to be a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
