Just How Good Tony Vitello Has Been Based On This One Benchmark

May 14

By Cody McClure

Tennessee defeated Belmont in baseball yesterday, 9-4.

Typically, a midweek baseball contest would hardly even make the headlines, but yesterday’s win was significant.

Not only was it — potentially — Hunter Ensley’s last home game as a Vol but it was also Tennessee’s 40th win of the year.

That’s a number that matters program-wise, as now Tony Vitello can say his teams have won 40 or more games in six consecutive full seasons.

To put that in perspective, the last time UT won 40 games in a season was in 2005 under Rod Delmonico.

Todd Raleigh and Dave Serrano never sniffed 40 wins. In their best seasons they had 30 and 31 wins, respectively.

For Vitello to do it in six consecutive seasons is a colossal achievement.

And honestly, if the 2020 season hadn’t been shortened by COVID, this would probably be the seventh consecutive year of 40 wins.

That 2020 team was off to a 15-2 start before the world shut down.

But just look at these records:

We’ll see how this year season turns out. It may be a “down year” but hopefully we can keep things in perspective.

Tennessee truly has the best college baseball program of this decade.

In fact, the Vols are roughly 30 wins better than second-place Arkansas in terms of wins this decade.

And speaking of Arkansas, UT will try to take two out of three against the Hogs in the upcoming final SEC series of the regular season.

The action begins a little earlier this week with game one taking place tomorrow (Thursday) at 8 p.m. ET in Fayetteville.

The series will be wrapped up by Saturday evening, giving Tennessee a pretty good idea on whether or not it will be hosting a Knoxville Regional.

Cody McClure

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