Tennessee baseball looked a lot differently this past weekend.
After four straight losses, the Vols were the best they’ve been all season as they swept the fourth-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores in Knoxville.
The starting pitching was better, the defense was better, and the offense, especially on Saturday and Sunday, was just as dominant as the 2022 Tennessee offense.
The offense wasn’t the only similarity between the 2022 Vols and the current team over the weekend, as Tennessee brought back the infamous Daddy hat and fur coat home run celebration that was made popular last year.
The Daddy hat has been around since 2021, and the fur coat made its debut in 2022 to create a unique home run celebration combination that every college baseball fan all across the country knew.
However, the hat and coat were replaced by a Star Wars Darth Vader helmet and lightsaber as the new home run celebration for the Big Orange in 2023.
Until the Vanderbilt series, that is, when the hat and coat made a triumphant return as the Vols swept their in-state rival.
So what led to the celebration’s return?
“It was a team jury who kind of got together,” Tennessee center fielder Hunter Ensley said. “About five or six people. The Darth Vader Star Wars wasn’t working, so we had to figure something out.”
it's baaaaaack pic.twitter.com/ww8EYmc6Zd
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) April 21, 2023
Shortstop Maui Ahuna also made a point that bringing back the celebration did positively impact the team.
“I walked in the dugout and saw it today,” Ahuna said after the Vols run-ruled Vanderbilt on Saturday. “I was like ‘Alright, we are back to this.’ It’s working.”
To Ahuna’s point, bringing back the accessories did work. Tennessee scored the most runs they have in an SEC series so far (31) and hit nine home runs in the process.
After a ninth-inning comeback and win in extra innings on Friday, the Vols exploded to take the series with a 17-1 victory on Saturday. Friday had its heroics, but it wasn’t until Saturday when Tennessee felt like they may have truly turned the corner.
On a weekend where there were many factors that led to Tennessee baseball feeling “back,” a hat with ‘Daddy’ embroidered across the front and a fur coat were certainly two of those factors.
