Third baseman Zane Denton transferred to Tennessee from Alabama July 2.
Denton is from Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tennessee.
He started 58 games for the Crimson Tide in 2022, recording a .263 batting average, 13 home runs, 48 RBIs, 35 runs, 61 hits and 22 walks.
Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with media Friday and discussed Denton joining the Vols’ program.
“It’s been great to have him,” Vitello said. “He’s a Tennessee kid. I think we were just a little late to the party as it relates to his recruiting efforts. When he was in high school, we had just gotten hired. We were able to kind of get in there and get an offer with him, but he had a really long existing relationship with Alabama, including their hitting coach that was there his first couple of years. It’s just been great to have him here because when we faced him, it’s like, man, this Tennessee guy, it’d be great to see him in a Tennessee uniform.
“He shores up a spot that is one of the more difficult spots in college baseball to fill, maybe other than having a catcher, that that’s the spot. You need a great defender in there, but it’s also a spot like the big leagues, you expect great things offensively, and when you talk about Andre (Lipcius), Trey (Lipscomb) and (Jake) Rucker, those are three guys that sat in the middle of the order, made every play for us, and shored up a position that maybe we weren’t quite as rich in wealth when we first showed up here. I think part of the success in the program has been we’ve had a dynamite player at that position, and he really impressed us with how much better he got defensively, how he took care of his body or developed physically there, and then hitting. Everybody knows he is fully capable of doing that.”
Below are Denton’s career statistics during his time at Alabama from 2020-22.