Tennessee baseball wins share of SEC regular-season championship with South Carolina sweep
Tony Vitello ran until he couldn't run any farther.
The Tennessee baseball coach waited at the cusp of the first-base line for Christian Moore, whose diving play Friday against South Carolina was among the many high points on the way to the highest point.
The Vols are the SEC champions again, clinching a share of the regular-season title with their sweep against South Carolina. UT won 4-1 on Saturday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Kentucky lost 12-4 to Vanderbilt so both teams finished 22-8 in SEC play.
"I’m proud of our guys," Vitello said. "There wasn’t a lot of chatter about any of that stuff going on. I didn’t hear any scores or anything going like that. The guys were just focused on the task at hand. If you do that, if you have the right approach, more times than not, the result will work itself out.”
No. 1 UT (46-10, 22-8 SEC) won the series opener 9-3 on Thursday and took the series with an 8-3 win Friday against No. 23 South Carolina (33-21, 13-17).
The Vols are the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament due to their series win against the Wildcats in mid-April. It will play Wednesday (5:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network) in Hoover, Alabama, against the winner of No. 8 Vanderbilt (35-20, 13-17) and No. 9 Florida (28-26, 13-17). UT has won nine straight SEC series, including against the Commodores and Gators.
The SEC regular-season title is the second under Vitello along with the 2022 title. UT has won three of the past four SEC East titles. It won the division outright in 2021 and 2022. UT had not won the SEC title since 1995 prior to Vitello being hired and had not won the division since 1997.
Zander Sechrist made arguably the best start of his career for SEC title
Zander Sechrist hopped in front of the Vols dugout Saturday, rejoicing after a third double play was turned behind him during a tremendous start.
Sechrist, who has been the game three starter all season, delivered one of the best performances of his career to send UT toward the SEC title. He threw six shutout innings, allowing four hits and walking none. He struck out four.
The Georgia native served mostly as a midweek starter during his career, but moved into the weekend rotation this season.
Hunter Ensley had a strong weekend in the field and at the plate
Drew Beam ran into second-inning problems against South Carolina on Friday. The Gamecocks had scored two and still had the bases loaded when Hunter Ensley chased down a liner in the gap to make a sliding catch on the warning track.
"It was a turning point," Beam said Friday. "That ball gets down, they score a couple more runs that inning and it changes the rest of the game."
Ensley made a game-swinging catch then a game-changing swing. He smacked a three-run homer in the sixth to put Tennessee ahead 4-3 and on its way to clinching the series.
Vitello moved Ensley into the five-spot in the lineup as part of a shuffle of the middle of the order. He also flipped Dylan Dreiling into the cleanup spot and put Kavares Tears sixth. Dreiling and Tears homered in Thursday's win.
AJ Causey might be the SEC's best relief pitcher
AJ Causey isn't a traditional reliever but he might be the best relief pitcher in the SEC. The junior took over the SEC lead in wins with his solid bullpen work Thursday to get to 10 wins, the first Vol to reach the 10-win mark since Chase Dollander in 2022.
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Causey struck out eight in 5⅓ innings. He allowed two runs on six hits with a walk. It was the sixth straight outing in which Causey has struck out at least six. It was the fifth straight time he threw at least five innings in relief in a series opener.
The Jacksonville State transfer has 93 strikeouts in 70⅔ innings. He is 10-3 with a 4.08 ERA.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee baseball wins SEC championship with South Carolina sweep
