The 2025 college baseball season is just over a month away and college baseball sites are beginning to roll out their preseason top 25 rankings.
D1Baseball released its preseason top 25 on Monday morning, pegging Tennessee baseball as the No. 4 team in the nation and the No. 3 team in the SEC.
The Vols are one eight SEC teams in the top 25, coming in behind No. 1 Texas A&M and No. 3 LSU and ahead of No. 5 Arkansas, No. 8 Georgia, No. 10 Florida, No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Mississippi State and No. 19 Texas.
Tennessee has five SEC series against preseason top 25 teams, hosting Florida in its SEC opening series as well as hosting Texas A&M in a rematch of the College World Series final series. The Vols also host Vanderbilt in a home series and have road trips to LSU and Arkansas in two of their final four series of the regular season.
Tony Vitello’s eighth Tennessee team also has a pair of lone matchups against preseason top 25 teams in non conference play. The Vols will face both No. 17 Oklahoma State and No. 21 Arizona in Houston as part of the Astros Foundation College Classic.
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Tennessee baseball is coming off its first ever National Championship and one of the best seasons in SEC history. The 2024 Vols won 60 games, including the SEC Regular-Season Championship and SEC Tournament Championship on the way to the National Championship.
The Vols lost an abundance of key players from last season’s title team including Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick, Dylan Dreiling and Kavares Tears at the plate. On the mound, Tennessee lost key arms including Drew Beam, Zander Sechrist, Kirby Connell, Aaron Combs and AJ Causey.
Still, expectations are high for the 2025 Vols. Tennessee returns a handful of key players including Hunter Ensley and Dean Curley at the plate as well as Nate Snead and Dylan Loy on the mound.
Combine the returning proven Vols with young players who have flashed potential and one of the nation’s top ranked recruiting and transfer classes and Tennessee has no shortage of talent.
Most notably, Tennessee landed Ole Miss stars Liam Doyle and Andrew Fischer as well as Louisville infielder Gavin Kilen in the portal. Talented freshmen Jay Abernathy, Tegan Kuhns and Levi Clark are looking to push for roles as well.
