Four Tennessee baseball players landed on the two Preseason All-SEC Teams voted by the conference’s coaches, the league announced Thursday.
Junior right-hander Chase Dollander and sophomore right-hander Chase Burns are the two starting pitchers on the first team while Kansas shortstop transfer Maui Ahuna and super senior reliever Camden Sewell landed on the second team.
Tennessee’s two players on the first team ties Arkansas, Florida and LSU for the most while the Vols’ four players on the two teams was tied for second with LSU and one selection behind Texas A&M.
The SEC’s coaches predicted Tennessee to win the SEC East this season but picked LSU to win the conference after LSU returned an abundance of talent and added key transfers in the field and on the mound.
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Dollander earned SEC Pitcher of the Year honors a season ago after transferring to Tennessee from Georgia Southern after his freshman season. The 6-foot-2 right-hander is one of the top collegiate pitching prospects of the last decade due to his upper-90s fastball and ability to pound the strike zone with three-to-four pitches.
The Evans, Georgia native posted a 10-0 record, 2.39 ERA and 0.80 WHIP a season ago.
Chase Burns’ impressive freshman season was slightly overshadowed by Dollander’s elite season but there’s good reason that he was a unanimous Preseason First Team All-American. Burns posted an 8-2 record and 2.91 ERA while striking out 103 batters in 80.1 innings pitched.
Super senior reliever Camden Sewell doesn’t have the high end fastball Dollander and Burns has but he’s been an elite bullpen arm for four years in Knoxville. A middle reliever who frequently throws multiple innings at a time, Sewell has a 2.53 ERA in 149.1 innings pitched.
Ahuna is one of the best defensive infielders into the country and is plenty talented with his bat as well. As a sophomore at Kansas, Ahuna hit .396 with eight home runs, 16 doubles and 48 RBIs.
Tennessee opens its 2023 campaign at the Desert Invitational in Arizona on Feb. 17.
