The 2024 Tennessee baseball team broke a number of program, SEC and NCAA records last season on its way to the national championship and the first 60-win season in SEC history.
One of the SEC records Tennessee set a season ago was grand slams in a single season with the Vols hitting 12 of them in their 73-game season. But just two and a half short weeks into the season, Tennessee is on the hunt to break its own record from a season ago.
The Vols have hit a remarkable seven grand slams in the first 12 games of their 2025 campaign after hitting three on Tuesday night against Radford. It was the first time in program history that Tennessee hit three grand slams in one game and just the 12th time in NCAA history that the feat was achieved.
Reese Chapman hit the first of the three grand slams, giving Tennessee an 8-2 lead in the third inning. Incredibly, Tennessee hit its next two home runs in the same inning. Andrew Fischer broke the game open when he hit a grand slam with nobody out in the seventh inning. Then pinch hitting Blake Grimmer enacted the run-rule later in the seventh inning with a two-out grand slam. The Vols scored 11 runs in the seventh inning to wrap up a 22-9 win.
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“You got to get on base, that’s for sure. In a case like tonight, there’s a guy (Blake Grimmer) that is eager to come off the bench and get in the game” Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello said of the propensity for grand slams. “So, sometimes it is that ‘want to’ taking place for some guys off the bench because there’s been a lot of guys off the bench who have done that. … It’s just guys grinding out at-bats for each other.”
Chapman has now hit two of Tennessee’s grand slams this season while Levi Clark, Hunter Ensley and Dalton Bargo have hit a singular grand slam along with Fischer and Grimmer.
Tennessee certainly won’t keep hitting grand slams at this incredible pace but they’re still in a strong spot to break the NCAA record of 14 grand slams in a single season.
The 2024 Vols broke the program record with 184 home runs last season and the 2025 team has hit 36 home runs to this point in the season. At its current rate, Tennessee is on pace to hit 165 home runs in its 55-game regular season. While the Vols pace will certainly slow down when they face better competition, Tennessee did hit 10 home runs in its three games at the Astros Foundation College Classic with two coming against strong Big 12 teams.
The Vols are back in action on Wednesday evening when they face Xavier in a midweek matchup. First pitch is at 5:30 p.m. ET at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
