Tennessee baseball's 2025 season came to an end short of the College World Series on Sunday.
As the Vols fell 11-4 in game two of the Fayetteville Super Regional vs. Arkansas, it sent the Razorbacks to Omaha and UT back to Knoxville to prepare for the next season.
Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello is seemingly taking the loss as hard as anyone. After the game, he issued an apology to Vol fans for coming up short of another trip to the CWS.
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"As it relates to us and our place, I’ll be the first one to apologize to our fan base... that we're not going to Omaha," Vitello said. "You can certainly go, but you’re not gonna be able to go as a fan."
Tennessee has been a mainstay in the College World Series since the hiring of Vitello. The Vols have been one of the final eight teams standing in Omaha in 2021, 2023 and 2024. In that final trip, UT went all the way and won the national title.
He's also set a remarkable standard of making the super regional stage as one of the final 16 teams standing. The five-straight trips past the regional round is the longest active streak in the country.
It's also worth noting Tennessee was projected to have a very strong 2020 team that had a shot to go as far as possible in the postseason. That year was cut well short due to Covid, though.
It hasn't just been on the baseball diamond that Tennessee has dominated recently, too. Vitello made sure to mention the long list of programs at UT that are currently excelling in its sport.
"If you’re a Vol fan, it was a pretty special year," Vitello said. "You got to have all the office conversations. Maybe even go all the way up to Columbus with football. I could go on and on with a bunch of other sports. You got one of the best men on the planet leading your basketball team and you got to have all the fun that those guys provided. Women’s basketball couldn’t have been more exciting. You got to go watch the softball World Series in person if you wanted to. I’m leaving plenty out, especially with tennis and swimming and diving and some other things that have gone on. But it can always be better, and no one will let you know more than SEC fans, but I think things are going in an outstanding direction, not just on our campus, but in the city. So it’ll be up to us to continue to improve, because mainly myself could have done better this year."
As far as improving for next year, there is something very clearly at the top of Vitello's mind.
In the attempt to climb the mountain back to the top of college baseball, one of the country's premier recruiters is focused on bringing more talent to Knoxville.
"Gotta go get guys," Vitello said. "I mean, we’re very fortunate with quality, maybe not necessarily quantity, that ended up with Gavin (Kilen) and Fish (Andrew Fischer) and Liam (Doyle) and T-Frank (Tanner Franklin). I think those were our four portal guys. Then, of course, we had the one kid signed in the draft. But last summer was tough. Last summer was tough. We weren’t on our campus. It just didn’t work out as well as we would want to. And then two, we bet on some young guys. I think you saw what Newy (Chris Newstrom) can do there, what Jay (Abernathy) can do. And last time we were here, Levi (Clark) hit one out of the park. I could mention other guys, too. So, no, you always want to recruit better. So, that’s what’s going to go on this summer."
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