CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Tennessee baseball won a lot of games in Reese Chapman’s four seasons in Knoxville. The Vols won a SEC regular season and tournament title, twice made it to the College World Series and won the program’s first ever national championship.
Chapman’s senior season was his best individually with the right fielder slashing .317/.419/.583 with 11 home runs, 20 doubles and 46 RBIs. But it was Tennessee’s worst season as a team, failing to make it out of a regional for the first time since 2019.
But Chapman is confident that the next four years will be extremely successful just like the last four years. What gives him that confidence?
“The guy to my right (Josh Elander),” Chapman said. “I mean, he wants to win just as bad as we want to win. I mean, I have full faith in this program. It’s gonna be right back at the top. So I mean, that’s all Vol Nation needs to hear is that we have this guy in our corner.”
Chapman and Elander have a particularly close relationship with the Vols’ head coach actively recruiting Chapman as a high schooler coming out of Colorado. Elander has consistently expressed confidence and belief in Chapman. Now the outfielder is returning the love.
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“For my skipper right here to the right of me, I will do anything for him,” Chapman said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to know him since I was 14. He’s family to me and I feel like I’m family to him. I’ve just been fortunate enough that he’s been able to make me a better baseball player but an even better person.”
Chapman is the only Tennessee everyday starter out of eligibility, but the Vols will likely lose four more position players to this summer’s MLB Draft.
Elander and his staff will now look to retain key players on this season’s roster and supplement the returning talent with a strong transfer portal class. Following Tennessee’s season-ending loss against VCU, Elander made it clear that the expectation is to play deeper into the postseason next year.
“We’ve been very fortunate to win a lot of regionals in a row,” Elander said. “That’s now come to an end, so I think we need to look at everything holistically and just try to get better. That needs to be a theme. So, we’ll have those conversations.”
