Tennessee baseball title caps historic spring for Volunteers athletics

On March 6, Dalton Knecht scored 26 points as the fourth-ranked Vols basketball team beat No. 17 South Carolina to clinch the outright SEC regular season championship on the hardwood. On May 3, Tennessee softball used a 4-run fourth inning to pull away from Kentucky for an 8-3 win to clinch a second consecutive regular-season title on the diamond. Then, on Saturday, the Tennessee baseball side swept South Carolina to win a share of the regular-season baseball crown.

In doing so, the Vols became the first team in SEC history to win men's basketball, baseball, and softball regular-season championships in the same year. (The SEC began sponsoring softball in 1997.)

Knecht was influential in getting the party rolling this spring for Tennessee. He led the league in scoring, putting in 21.7 points a game to earn the SEC's Player of the Year honor and consensus All-American status. Tennessee went 14-4 against the rest of the conference to earn the program's first outright SEC regular season championship since the 2007-08 season.

The Vols' softball program run-ruled Virginia on Saturday to advance to the Knoxville Regional final on Sunday. Kiki Milloy and Taylor Pannell hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first inning to get the scoring going early and UT added 5 more runs in the second inning followed by 4 in the third.

The baseball squad finished the regular season 46-10 overall with a 22-8 record in league play. UT went 35-3 at home. Christian Moore's 27 home runs paced an offense that saw 5 different hitters smash at least 16 homers on the season.

They're seeking to make it title sweeps in 2 of the last 3 seasons after winning both outright in 2022. But there are also bigger aspirations in Knoxville. The Vols are the favorites to win the College World Series, currently +550 to win the national title at DraftKings.

It's looking like a banner year for Danny White. Football won 9 games and the Citrus Bowl. The 3 aforementioned spring sports won conference titles. Elsewhere, men's golf advanced to the NCAA Tournament this week while the women's tennis team advanced to the Final Four as a 16-seed on Friday night, becoming the lowest-ever seed to reach a semifinal in the 64-team bracket era (since 1999).

We'll see if Josh Heupel's fourth season at the helm of the football program can add another title to the trophy case. FanDuel has the Vols at +1100 to win the SEC in 2024.

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Derek Peterson

Derek Peterson comes to the Pac-12 after years of serving as a college football beat writer at Oklahoma and Nebraska. He's a firm believer that teams should never punt. Follow on Twitter.