After Turning Point Season, Tennessee Eliminated from CWS

Image credit: Tennessee 2B Max Ferguson (Photo courtesy of Tennessee)

OMAHA—Momentum in the Tennessee baseball program has been clear over the last few years. A regional appearance for the first time in 14 years came in 2019. The 2020 season brought a 15-2 start before the season was shut down. And this season brought the big payoff, a 50-win season that ended in the first trip to the College World Series since 2005. 

The CWS appearance is a crowning achievement for a roster that features a number of veterans who have been through plenty of good and bad for the Volunteers, including holdovers from the Dave Serrano era in first baseman Luc Lipcius, DH Pete Derkay and lefthanders Redmond Walsh and Will Heflin. 

Things didn’t go the Volunteers’ way in the CWS, however, as an 8-4 loss to Texas Tuesday sent them back to Knoxville with an 0-2 showing that also included a 6-0 loss to Virginia on Sunday. 

Tennessee’s emotional run through the regional and super regional rounds, a 5-0 showing capped by a blowout win over Louisiana State that amounted to one extended celebration over the final four innings of the game, didn’t seem to carry over this week, as the Volunteers seemed out of sorts and flat throughout. 

A team that hit 98 home runs this season didn’t get a single ball out of the park in two games in Omaha. In fact, there was just one extra-base hit, a Jordan Beck double in the second inning against Texas. On the mound, freshman Blade Tidwell had a rough start against the Longhorns, lasting just three innings, and reliable righthander Sean Hunley had trouble getting outs in both games. 

At this stage, there are only good teams left, making no elimination truly shocking, but Tennessee going home this quickly is a bit surprising, especially to those who were on the field. 

“I think it’s hard because, no disrespect to the opponent, (I) just didn’t envision it today,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said. “Even in the ninth inning, maybe you get two outs and nobody’s on, you start thinking what do I say to the guys or anything like that. I mean, nothing’s packed, I can tell you that. I have no idea how much longer we’ll stay here, but I feel unprepared.”

Part of the reason the elimination feels as abrupt as it does is that this Tennessee team looked uniquely positioned to play well in Omaha and make a deep run. 

The lineup could mash one through nine. Five different players had double-digit home runs and seven had double-digit doubles. The Vols also seemed to have a knack for the big hit. They had seven walk-off wins over the course of the season, including a 9-8 win over Wright State to open the Knoxville Regional on a walk-off grand slam by Drew Gilbert. 

At the same time, the pitching staff could win them games as well, even after it lost righthander Jackson Leath to injury early in the season. Righthander Chad Dallas emerged as a quality Friday starter, and he gave perhaps his best performance of the season against LSU in the super regional. Freshman righthander Blade Tidwell flashed future Friday starter stuff. Hunley, Walsh and righthander Camden Sewell were solid from start to finish in the bullpen.

But it just wasn’t meant to be. Vitello admits that his team didn’t play its brand of baseball in game 1. In game 2, it was in the game to a greater degree than in the shutout loss to Virginia, but it wasn’t enough. 

“There were just a couple situations where we didn’t come up with the big hit or big pitch,” Derkay said. “But felt like throughout the entire day we were fighting, and kind of played more our brand of baseball. We just got beat today.

Moving forward, in the immediate term, there are some questions Tennessee will have to answer. Derkay, Heflin and Walsh are out of eligibility, and Dallas, Leath, second baseman Max Ferguson and third baseman Jake Rucker are all significant risks to leave in the draft. It won’t be a top-down rebuild next season by any stretch, but there will be plenty of pieces to replace. 

In the years following, at least until the promises surrounding facility upgrades in Knoxville turn into action, there are also guaranteed to be continued questions about Vitello sticking around as big-time jobs open up in the southeast. 

However, the continued momentum from this postseason run can’t be ignored, and it’s easy to see this season being a building block for bigger things down the line. This group showed that Tennessee can win big again, even fighting through an SEC that is as competitive as it has ever been at the top. That’s a big step for a program that spent more than a decade getting beaten up by the rest of the league. 

“With the younger guys, too, especially getting to experience this, you want more of it,” Derkay said. “And when we made it to the regional in 2019 and got eliminated from that, we knew we wanted more. To get here was great but if I had one more year, I want more. So for them it’s just keep staying the course with everything and keep putting in the work that got us here this go-around and to keep doing that.”

Because of the turnover, expectations for next season might be somewhat muted right out of the gate, but there is enough talent returning to also be excited about what will be in place. Maybe the Volunteers take a step back in 2022, but there’s little reason to expect it to be anything more than a small one. 

Tidwell will be back to lead the rotation, outfielder Jordan Beck, who hit 15 homers this season, will be a centerpiece in the lineup and Vitello thinks he could work his way into being a first-round pick. Gilbert will give Beck a quality running mate in the middle of the order. And Tennessee continues to recruit well, as it has a top-10 class waiting to enroll this fall. The results of this season, plus what the Vols will have in 2022, has Derkay optimistic. 

“I will remember this season for the rest of my life,” Derkay said. “To do something that this program hasn’t done in 16 years, to get back here, and ever since I stepped on this campus I said I wanted to change the culture here. And with Luc, Redmond and Will, that was just something that was on our mind. I’d say the lasting thing is we did that and Tennessee baseball is back.”

Coming off of its best season in a long, long time, the next step for Tennessee baseball is making those words, Derkay’s announcement that Vols baseball is back on the map, sound prophetic.