Newcomers no more: Tennessee transfers becoming VFLs amid postseason journey
Tennessee baseball added four key transfers to the roster this past offseason with hopes of accelerating a ‘’reload’ year, back to the postseason for another run to Omaha. Fast forward to now and that’s exactly what the Vols are doing – thanks in part to these one-time newcomers.
Maui Ahuna was one of the most talked about transfers in all of college baseball this offseason, spending part of the summer with USA Baseball and is still one of the Top-150 MLB Draft prospects as we sit a little over a month away from the draft.
Griffin Merritt was the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year after leading the league in home runs at Cincinnati. Zane Denton was a multiyear starter and former member of the SEC All-Defensive Team while at Alabama. Andrew Lindsey was re-starting his career after a year off – following a successful freshman season at Charlotte.
There was a need for each and there was a reason Tony Vitello and his staff scouted, recruited and ultimately signed them to play in Knoxville.
Ahuna is going to strike out a lot – that’s just who he is. But the former Kansas Jayhawk has one of the best gloves in the country and will save far more runs than he’ll give up. This was never more apparent than at the Clemson Regional this past weekend where the shortstop was all over the field, making highlight play after highlight play. Most notably, he was part of the 4-6-3 double play that got the Vols out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the 10th inning in what would go on to become a thrilling 14-inning affair where the Vols took down the fourth-overall seed.
He’s also hitting .304 on the year – fourth highest on the team – and easily leading the squad with 19 doubles.
“As a hitter, you have to hit and you may strike out, you may get out and then you have to go play defense seconds later,” Tony Vitello said when asked about Ahuna’s defense. “You may be required to make one of those [special] plays so one thing for Maui and the others too is they don’t have room not to be hooked up.”
There were high hopes for Merritt this spring in the corner outfield and in the heart of the order. But as Tennessee begun to figure out its outfield rotation, the slugger found more value as the team’s designated-hitter. All this came after he battled through a brutal 2-for-30 stretch that resulted in him being benched for four games midway through the year. Merritt flipped the switch and entered postseason play right back in the heart of the order, hitting cleanup, and leading the Vols with 18 home runs. That average also sits above .300 as well.
“Griff has been a leader from day one,” the skipper continued. “He’s just kind of got that mojo and level of maturity about him. That’s been there even before his time here.”
Merritt was one of four Volunteers who garnered Clemson Regional All-Tournament honors. Christian Moore was named MVP and the other all-stars we’ll talk about next.
Denton didn’t hit the ball much over the weekend in regional play, but when he did, he sure made the most of it. All three of his hits were home runs and none shined brighter than his go-ahead three-run bomb in the ninth inning against the Clemson Tigers.
“I was just trying to battle and keep the game alive,” the third baseman said in postgame that night. “Luckily, I got a fastball I could handle, and I swung through two fastballs already so I kind of already knew what it looked like. He gave me one over the plate and I put a good swing on it.”
The veteran SEC player will also surprise you at the hot corner of the infield with some sneaky athleticism and quick reflexes. Denton’s throwing motion may look a bit unique but his defense has always been solid, committing an infield-low three errors on the season.
“He had quite an interesting path to get here,” Vitello said of Denton. “Then when he got here, just so much adversity and different things that didn’t allow him to get in a rhythm on this campus. But right now, I think he’s in as good of a rhythm as possible.”
And then there’s Lindsey who started the season in the Tennessee bullpen despite easily having some of the best stuff on staff. Still, kind of tough to replace one of the All-American trio of Chase Dollander, Chase Burns and Drew Beam out of the gate. The opportunity did come, however, mid-season in Fayetteville. The ace has never looked back and is arguably the biggest reason for the Vol’s turnaround. Tennessee has won the past six games Lindsey has started and after his short retirement from the game, he has transformed himself into a likely early-round MLB Draft pick next month.
‘We knew this right away, he’s going to be true to who he is forever, for himself. It’s one of the things that makes him a strong personality,” Vitello said of the hurler. “Just when you’re conversating with him, or in the dugout, of course on the mound as well. It’s an attribute we thought that would be great at the end of games or potentially starting games to see how things would unfold.
“Sometimes, things are kind of out of your hands. It could be a higher power, it could be whatever, but the way the season started to evolve, he ended up in the spot that he did. He’s individually capitalized on it, but the team has benefited from him just doing well – in particular in the role that he’s in.”
There’s a reason Tennessee is alive and well and playing in its third-straight super regional. Vitello and his staff bring in good ball players and then develop them into great ones. But there’s always a need to add on and bring in some experience. These four one-time transfers made a home on Rocky Top months ago, but they are now becoming VFLs and characters in countless stories about how this team came to be.
Let’s see if they create some more this week in Hattiesburg.
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