Tennessee baseball slugger Levi Clark is returning to for his junior season, he indicated on Instagram and a source confirmed to RTI on Sunday evening.
Clark is coming off a sophomore season where he hit .242 with 13 home runs, 13 doubles and 44 RBIs. It was an adversity filled season for Clark. The talented hitter struggled badly against lighter competition in non conference play before performing up to his high expectations in SEC play.
The Georgia native played as big a part of Tennessee’s midseason offensive turnaround as anyone, slashing .292/.352/.510 with nine home runs, seven doubles and a team-best 27 RBIs during SEC play.
A catcher by trade, Clark started 36 games at first base and 16 games at catcher during his sophomore season. Garrett Wright is likely off to professional baseball while Stone Lawless and Trent Grindlinger are returning next season. That could set Clark up to catch more but he still likely won’t be the Vols’ top backstop next season.
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Clark joins a key group of Vols that have shared their intentions to return for next season including catcher Grindlinger, Lawless, right-handed pitcher Landon Mack and left-handed pitcher Cam Appenzeller.
Thirteen Tennessee players have entered the transfer portal this offseason including shortstop Manny Marin, utility man Jay Abernathy, catcher Cash Williams, infielder Finley Bates, shortstop Ariel Antigua, infielder Ethan Moore, first baseman Evan Hankins, utility man Hunter High, utility man Chris Newstrom, outfielder Hutson Chance and right-handed pitcher Brayden Krenzel, two-way Taylor Tracey and right-handed pitcher Ari Bethea.
The Vols landed their first transfer portal commit Saturday when Mercer two-way Braydon Kersey committed to Josh Elander and his staff over Georgia and Wake Forest.
Tennessee has either hosted or scheduled visits with three transfers in addition to Kersey so far this offseason. Samford outfielder Jake Souders officially visited on Thursday while Northwestern State left-handed pitcher Brody Trosclair visitedSunday and Air Force infielder Wyatt Hanoian plans on visiting Monday.
