The Tennessee Volunteers were successful in their first road trip of the season, keeping the undefeated season alive. 

Coach Tony Vitello and reigning natty champs took a ride to Space City, for the 25th edition of the annual Astros Foundation College Classic. This tournament is always an amazing way to raise awareness towards good causes and showcase some of colleges biggest and brightest stars.

Tennessee first matched up with Oklahoma State University, the first ranked matchup of the year for the Volunteers.

Gavin Kilen didn’t wait long to lift off for the Vols, launching a solo homerun in the top of the first to catapult the Vols to an early lead. This was just a sneak peek into the weekend Kilen will have. Doing it all himself again, in the third, Kilen parks a homer. This time, backside into the Crawford Boxes at Daikin Field. 

The Vols held on sturdy to their lead, adding on and building up a 5-0 advantage. Tennessee was in full control of this game. Liam Doyle had another amazing outing on the bump and did his job in ensuring Oklahoma had no chance of clawing their way back into this one. Four 1/3 innings pitched with nine strikeouts and no earned runs was the final stat line for Doyle. He wasn’t credited with the win in this one, however, it was Dylan Loy. Loy just faced the last two batters of the inning after relieving Doyle, fanning both of them.

Again, we got to see the little 1A-1B action, with Tanner Franklin coming in out of the bullpen. Franklin, who has had continued success thus far in his Tennessee career, did surrender his first earned runs of the season. The Cowboys scratched two across on two extra base-hits in the fifth. 

This effort was not enough for the Cowboys, as Nate Snead came in to shut the door on the ninth. This was the first of what should be many recorded saves this season for the preseason Stopper of the Year watchlist nominee. Very successful first ranked win for Tony Vitello and team. 

Saturday brought the Vols the Rice Owls. With this being Tennessee’s only non-ranked opponent of the weekend, they took care of business, 13-3 final. 

Notables Performances:

• Gavin Kilen- 4/5 with another two homeruns and a triple.
• Marcus Phillips- 4.2 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 earned run
• Levi Clark- 1/3 with 3 RBI homerun. 

Onto Sunday, the last matchup of the weekend for Tennessee was the Arizona Wildcats. 

It was a bullpen day for the Vols, which is usually how Sundays look for them. Tegan Kuhns was the first on the rubber for them today.

Kuhns went two innings, but not before giving up the first run of the game after back to back liners in the gap, right by the diving attempts of Hunter Ensley in center. 

Brandon Arvidson came in hoping to keep it a one run game. He would later end up being awarded the win for this game after just an inning and two thirds.

This was all thanks to Andrew Fischer and Levi Clark hitting back-to-back jacks on back-to-back pitches. 

From then on, Nate Snead and Wildcat pitchers went back and forth until the seventh when Cannon Peebles got a hold of one, adding two clutch insurance runs. 

Tennessee’s pitching staff was lights out all weekend and kept that narrative strong, closing out the game with a 5-1 final, crowning them champions of the Astros Foundation College Classic! 

Tennessee headed back to Lindsey Nelson Stadium, finishing up the final week of non-conference play with two midweek matchups and St. Bonaventure for the weekend series. 

For Tony Vitello, this should be a week to add the finishing touches, polish over everything, make sure your guys are firing on all cylinders heading into SEC play. Firing on all cylinders they were, outscoring opponents a mind boggling 71-13. That’s a lot of offense. 

Notable performances from the week:

• Andrew Fischer- 4 homeruns with 12 RBI’s
• Liam Doyle- 13 strikeouts and 5 1/3 innings pitched in part of the ninth no-hitter in Tennessee history on March 7th vs St. Bonaventure
• Marcus Phillips-dominant 5 ⅓ innings pitched with just one earned run

A few things I wanted to highlight from this week are not one but two mercy rule walk-off grand slams. The first one coming on Tuesday’s matchup vs Radford. This one came off the bat of pinch hitter, Blake Grimmer. 

The next coming off the bat of freshman Manny Marin that weekend to secure the series win over St. Bonaventure. 

Also, I brushed by the fact the Vols threw a no hitter. On the Friday night matchup vs St. Bonaventure. Liam Doyle dazzled again, going almost six innings. Tanner Franklin finished the sixth for Doyle. The last three innings were each manned by someone different. Brandon Arvidson, Brayden May, and Michael Sharman went one frame each to finish out the no hitter. 

To recap, an extremely successful week for the Vols in preparation for SEC play. 

Tennessee just completed their series win over Alabama as of March 24th, 2025. Look out for a recap of the past two weekends, including their SEC Opening Weekend sweep over Florida.