Tennessee was awarded the number two seed in the Chapel Hill Regional; the Vols will face off against the third seeded Pirates of ECU, with the winner facing the winner of the UNC-VCU matchup later that day. The Volunteers are coached by first-year skipper Josh Elander after longtime coach Tony Vitello left to coach the San Francisco Giants.
UT made the NCAA tournament via an at-large bid after going 38-20 overall and 15-15 in a deep SEC. They won their first SEC tourney game against South Carolina
before bowing out to Arkansas. It was a bit of a disappointing campaign for Tennessee, as many preseason outlets had them pegged as a top 15 team heading into the 2026 season. The team did sweep a good Mississippi State squad and won series against Alabama and Texas, all teams who earned top 16 seeds in the tournament. The talent that earned that expectation is still on the roster and has shown flashes of greatness throughout the season, often followed up by inconsistency. The Vols could potentially be a significant hurdle for UNC to escape the Chapel Hill Regional.
Pitching
A look at the Volunteers pitching has to start with Tegan Kuhns. Kuhns is UT’s staff ace and easily their best starting pitcher. The sophomore hurler is considered a potential first round pick in the 2026 MLB draft and struck out 15 in a game against Texas earlier this season. Kuhns finished the season with a 5-4 record and a 3.39 ERA in 14 appearances (13 starts). With 100 strikeouts in 77 innings pitched, he has the ability to dominate even good lineups.
How Tennessee chooses to deploy Kuhns will be worth watching. Somewhat surprisingly, he wasn’t called upon to pitch in either of UT’s SEC tournament games. Will Josh Elander use his ace against a red-hot East Carolina team? Or will he hope the Vols can advance anyway and save him for the top-seeded Heels?
Outside of Kuhns, the Volunteers pitching staff isn’t terribly imposing. Evan Blanco (7-4, 4.94 ERA) and Landon Mack (4-4, 4.67 ERA) have generally started most of Tennessee’s other games. There was a lot of buzz around freshman reliever Cam Appenzeller after a hot start to the season, but he’s come back to earth a bit in his last few outings (although he did draw a start against South Carolina in UT’s SEC tourney opener). Relief pitcher Bo Rhudy is one of their better bullpen options; he sports a 3.64 ERA and a sparkling 0.86 WHIP. That being said, he’s used sparingly by the Vols and has only pitched in back-to-back games once. Brandon Ardvison is their primary innings-eating middle reliever; while he’s a perfectly respectable pitcher, he’s not quite lived up to his preseason All-SEC First Team billing.
While the pitching staff collectively sports a middling ERA of 4.71, they do excel at not handing out free bases. The Vols are among the top ten teams in the country in fewest walks allowed per game. In short, the Heels will probably need to make contact to score.
Batting
Tennessee does two things well on offense: hit home runs and strike out. The Vols finished seventh in the country in total homers, launching 111 in 58 games. Nor is it just a couple players doing the damage; UT had seven different players hit at least nine dingers. Third baseman Henry Ford leads the way with 19 home runs. Ford is batting right at .300 and leads the team in slugging percentage, hits, and RBIs. The heart of the Vols batting order also includes Reese Chapman (.315 batting average, 10 home runs, leads the team in stolen bases) and Garrett Wright (leads the team in batting average at .346 and has 16 HBPs).
Someone a bit under the radar to keep an eye on is Tennessee rookie catcher/DH Trent Grindlinger. Grindlinger has quickly worked his way into the starting lineup at the DH spot and has had a good first year. He’s batting .341 and has eight homers despite getting less plate appearances than some of the other Vol starters. He was named to the SEC All-Freshman team and was the only UT position player to garner All-SEC recognition. Totally a gut call here, but he could be a difference maker for the Vols.
When Tennessee aren’t hitting homers, they’re often striking out. The Vols are among the nation’s leaders in strikeouts, ranking in the top 20 in both total KOs and KOs/9. This in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing; there are roughly half a dozen teams with worse SO/9 averages that are hosting a regional in the NCAA tournament. However, Tennessee isn’t doing enough to mitigate the strikeouts to generate a lot of offense. The Vols do a poor job of getting on base in general, generating little offense outside of their home runs. They’re also bad at drawing walks; add it all up, and UT’s offense is dangerous when they’re mashing homers and downright anemic when they’re not.
Overall, UT has the talent to win a game against anyone in the region, including UNC. Their chances of getting out of the regional will weigh heavily on the results of their first game against ECU. A win, and they will be a real threat to advance. However, I don’t think they have the depth to win the four games in a row they’d need to if they lost their first game against the Pirates.
