Tennessee ranked as consensus No. 1 team in college baseball

Original source (on modern site) | Article images: [1]

Tennessee baseball is the new No. 1 team in the country following its series win at Florida over the weekend. The Vols moved up two spots in D1Baseball's poll on Monday morning to claim the No. 1 ranking for just the second time in program history.

Previously-ranked No. 1 Texas A&M lost two of three at LSU over the weekend to open the door for the Vols to claim the top spot. No. 2 Arkansas also lost its series at Kentucky to help the cause.

Tennessee was one of seven SEC teams ranked in this week's poll with two weeks remaining in the regular season. UT was joined by No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 4 Kentucky, No. 5 Arkansas, No. 13 South Carolina, No. 14 Mississippi State and No. 15 Georgia. Vanderbilt and Alabama dropped out of this week's poll.

"For the first time during the 2024 college baseball season, Tennessee is the top team in the land in the D1Baseball Top 25 Rankings," D1Baseball wrote. "The Volunteers, who won a series at Florida over the weekend, supplant Texas A&M, which dropped a road series to LSU.

"The Aggies didn't drop far, falling from No. 1 to No. 3 this week, while Clemson moved up two spots after an impressive home series win over Georgia Tech. The rest of the top five includes Kentucky and Arkansas, which dropped from No. 2 to No. 5 following a road series loss in Lexington over the weekend."

Here's where the Volunteers are ranked in the five major college baseball polls coming off of their series win over the Gators.

• D1Baseball: No. 1 (+2)
• National College Baseball Writers Association: No. 1 (+2)
• USA Today Coaches' Poll: No. 1 (+2)
• Perfect Game: No. 1 (+2)
• Baseball America: No. 1 (+2)

Tennessee beat Florida 6-2 in the series opener on Friday afternoon behind a strong pitching performance from Chris Stamos, AJ Causey and Kirby Connell. The trio combined to hold a powerful Florida lineup to two runs on seven hits. They struck out 11 and only allowed one walk.

UT's one through four hitters — Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick and Dylan Dreiling — went 10-for-19 in the opener to lead the offense to six runs on 12 hits. They scored five runs, tallied three RBIs, hit two doubles and drew a walk. Amick and Dreiling each registered three hits, while Burke and Moore each had two apiece.

The Big Orange struggled offensively in game two, however, scoring just three runs on six hits to lose the second game of Friday's doubleheader, 4-3, setting up a critical rubbermatch on Saturday night.

Tennessee exploded for 11 runs in the sixth inning of the series finale to blow open a one-run game and secure its seventh straight SEC series win with a 16-3 win over the Gators in seven innings. Hunter Ensley led the way in UT's offensive outburst with three run-producing hits, finishing with a pair of two-run doubles and a three-run homer for a career-high seven RBIs.

UT will be back in action on Tuesday night to face Queens in this week's midweek game. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.

The Vols will then hit the road once again for a second consecutive road series. They'll travel to Nashville for a three-game series with arch-rival Vanderbilt beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET. Game two on Saturday will begin at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network, while the series finale on Mother's Day will also begin at 3 p.m. on ESPN2.