Tennessee baseball is one poll shy of being the unanimous No. 1 team in college baseball after sweeping the Astros Foundation College Classic in Houston over the weekend.
The Vols beat Oklahoma State 5-2 on Friday afternoon in their first game at Daikin Park, the home of the Houston Astros formerly known as Minute Maid Park. They then defeated Rice 13-3 on Saturday, and Arizona 5-1 on Sunday, to extend their winning streak to begin the 2025 season to 11 games. The Vols’ winning streak dating back to last season is now at 13 games.
Tennessee arrived in Houston ranked as a unanimous top-five team in college baseball’s five major polls. It was ranked No. 1 in at least one poll: the USA TODAY Coaches Poll. This week, the National College Baseball Writers Association, Baseball America and Perfect Game all ranked Tennessee No. 1 in its rankings.
D1Baseball was the only publication on Monday that didn’t rank the Vols as the top team in the sport. D1 ranked LSU as the new No. 1 team in the country after dropping Texas A&M all the way to No. 14. They ranked Tennessee No. 2.
12 SEC teams were ranked in D1Baseball’s top 25 this week. Arkansas (No. 3), Georgia (No. 5), Florida (No. 7), Texas (No. 12), Oklahoma (No. 13), Ole Miss (No. 17), Vanderbilt (No. 18), Auburn (No. 22) and Alabama (No. 23) joined LSU, the Vols and the Aggies.
Here’s where the Volunteers are ranked in the five major college baseball polls coming off their weekend sweep in Houston.
- USA TODAY Coaches Poll: No. 1 (-)
- National College Baseball Writers Association: No. 1 (+1)
- Baseball America: No. 1 (+1)
- Perfect Game: No. 1 (+3)
- D1 Baseball: No. 2 (+1)
Tennessee has been ranked in at least one poll for 83 consecutive weeks. UT has spent 21 weeks ranked No. 1, as it did so for 12 weeks in 2022, eight weeks in 2024 and one week last season.
The Vols have been ranked in a preseason top-25 poll in each of the past five seasons after going 13 consecutive years without being ranked prior to the start of the season.
“I think you always get a little greedy as far as getting guys at-bats and utilizing guys, but I think you also are looking to find out as much about your team before conference play rolls around,” Tony Vitello said following Tennessee’s productive weekend in Houston. “We did that based off the competition we had to face, the circumstances we were in, and certainly the setting and playing in this big league ball park, in front of fans and media attention and things like that.”
Up Next
Tennessee will play two midweek games this week when it hosts Radford (5-5) on Tuesday and Xavier (7-5) on Wednesday. Both games will begin at 6 p.m. ET and be streamed on SEC Network+.
The Volunteers will then host St. Bonaventure (7-3) for a three-game series next weekend. It’ll be the Vols’ final non-conference series of the season before SEC play begins against Florida inside of Lindsey Nelson Stadium on March 14.
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