Tennessee’s season comes to an end in Fayetteville; Vols lose 11-4

A tough one from the start.

The Tennessee baseball season is over after a disappointing showing in Fayetteville this afternoon. The Volunteers had their No. 1 on the mound with the season hanging in the balance, but the potent Arkansas offense proved to be too much.

Shaky start for Liam Doyle

Tennessee’s unquestioned ace and future top pick in the MLB Draft didn’t have his best stuff this afternoon. Doyle hit the first batter of the game and issued a couple more walks in the early going. The lefty tossed 40 pitches in the first two innings of the game, and he wouldn’t last much further.

Charles Davalan hit a two-run shot to right to give Arkansas a 2-0 lead.

Doyle would load the bases in the fourth, and Tony Vitello had seen enough. Brayden Krenzel was called upon in relief and immediately handed the Razorbacks another run with a wild pitch. It would get much worse from there.

Tennessee loads the bases, but only gets one home

A golden opportunity to go grab the lead came in the bottom of the third. The Volunteers strung a few hits together to load the bases, and the right guy was up at the plate. Andrew Fischer had a chance to give Tennessee control of this one, but he ended up grounding into a double play. Just one run would score.

Tennessee would pop out to end the inning, still trailing 2-1.

Arkansas puts it away

Krenzel didn’t last very long as Vitello moved to AJ Russell. With the bases loaded, Russell immediately gave up a blast to Logan Maxwell to move the score out to 7-1.

Arkansas would stretch that lead out to 10-1 in the seventh inning. The Tennessee offense just never could find that key hit to answer, and the Volunteers went down without much of a fight.

Tennessee added one in the eighth and Jay Abernathy crushed a two-run home run to left center in the ninth, but it was too little, too late.

Final score: Arkansas 11, Tennessee 4

Look, there’s no doubt about it — this season will go down as a disappointment. The late season slide after such a hot start was a shock to see play out, with the Volunteers dropping six of their last seven SEC series. The team salvaged a solid finish to the year in Hoover, beating Alabama and Texas to earn a bid to host in the regional round. In the end though, they simply ran into a stronger roster after drawing Arkansas. This heavyweight battle lacked the drama we had hoped to get this weekend.

For Vitello and company, it’s time to reload. Tennessee has yet another top five recruiting class coming in and they will undoubtedly come away with some major wins in the transfer portal once again.

But this one is going to sting.

Tennessee can’t quite figure out the Razorbacks in the Vitello era, going up against his old boss Dave Van Horn. The Hogs are headed to Omaha for the 12th time in program history — for Tennessee it’s time to turn the page and look ahead to 2026.