The American Baseball Coaches Association tabbed Tennessee’s Tony Vitello as its National Coach of the Year on Wednesday just two days after Vitello led the Vols to their first National Championship in program history.
Tennessee baseball posted a 60-13 (22-8 SEC) record during the 2024 season, winning the SEC East, SEC Regular-Season Championship and SEC Tournament on its way to earning the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Vitello’s squad was done there. They swept their way through the Knoxville Regional, beat Evansville in three games in the Knoxville Super Regional, went 3-0 on its way to advancing to the College World Series finals and then beat Texas A&M in three games to win the National Championship.
Tennessee’s offense was once again stellar hitting 184 home runs— the second most of any college team in program history. Christian Moore broke the Vols’ single-season program record with 34 home runs while Dylan Dreiling, Billy Amick, Blake Burke and Kavares Tears all hit 20-plus home runs.
More From RTI: Rick Barnes Discusses Tony Vitello And Tennessee Baseball Winning The National Championship
The Vols were less dynamic on the mound but pieced things together and ranked in the top 10 nationally in team-ERA for the fourth straight season. Returners Zander Sechrist and Aaron Combs took major steps forward while Tennessee added important arms in the transfer portal like AJ Causey and Nate Snead.
It’s the first time that Vitello has won the ABCA National Coach of the Year Award but he has won other National Coach of the Year awards earlier in his Tennessee tenure. In 2021, both the National Baseball Writer’s Association and Perfect Game named him coach of the year. In 2022, the NBCWA made him its back-to-back coach of the year winner.
During Vitello’s six full seasons as Tennessee’s head coach, the Vols have made the NCAA Tournament five times, super regional four times and the College World Series three times. Tennessee has also won the SEC Regular-Season Championship and SEC Tournament Championship twice in the last three years.
