Tony Vitello examines what went wrong for Tennessee offensively in Super Regional vs. Arkansas

For the first time since 2022, Tennessee is not headed to the College World Series. It was matched up with SEC-foe Arkansas in the Fayetteville Super Regional, where it fell in two games by scores of 4-3 and 11-4.

It was an extremely frustrating two-game span for the Volunteer offense, which hit for just a .159 average and totaled just two hits in their 4-3 loss. Following Sunday night’s season-ending loss, head coach Tony Vitello was asked about his team’s lack of offense.

“Not really,” Vitello responded when asked if Tennessee‘s offensive struggles date back to the back half of SEC play. “I think if it had a common theme from what you’re referring to or just in my eyes sitting in the dugout today, it’s an emotional group. When you take a punch in the gut [referring to Arkansas‘ fourth inning grand slam] it can derail you a little bit. There’s times where they did not allow that to happen. Wake Forest goes up 2-0 is the most recent example. Texas goes up 4-0 or something similar. So it wasn’t always the case, but if we had a weak spot it was a little bit of that out of some offensive guys.”

Tony Vitello applauds Arkansas’ Zach Root

Arkansas‘ pitching staff limited Tennessee‘s offense, which hit the third most home runs in college baseball this season (131), to just three home runs over the two-game span (two of which came in the ninth inning). Junior left-hander Zach Root was shutdown in the Super Regional opener, as he held Tennessee to just one hit and one run with six strikeouts over seven innings.

“Arkansas is really good,” Vitello continued. “I mean [Arkansas pitcher Zach] Root, I don’t know what he said in here, but that’s the best he’s thrown. I think he climbed his best bullet by 2 MPH at least and he was really good. It was a tight game yesterday and we could have swung better. But today, you know, bases loaded with nobody out. We’d like to do more damage than one run. But after that, I think just dealing with the emotion of being down by a good a margin and being down to your last game (if you don’t win) was a factor.”

With the Super Regional loss, Tennessee‘s season comes to an end with a 46-19 record. Arkansas will now head to the Men’s College World Series for the eighth time under coach Dave Van Horn and for the first time since 2022. The Razorbacks open play in Omaha against LSU on June 14 at 7:00 pm EST.