Graduate student Zane Denton announced on Aug. 5, 2023 he would return to Tennessee for one more season.
The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Denton appeared in 66 games for the Vols in 2023. He recorded 16 home runs, 59 RBIs, 43 runs, 46 walks, one stolen base and a .269 batting average last season.
Denton transferred to Tennessee from Alabama ahead of the 2023 campaign.
The Vols will open its 2024 season Feb. 16 versus Texas Tech (8 p.m. EST) in the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown presented by Kubota.
The tournament will take place at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, home of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.
Seventh-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with media on Thursday ahead of opening day. Vitello provided an update on Denton and discussed if he expects the graduate student to be with the Vols in 2024.
“I don’t really have any expectations because I don’t have complete answers,” Vitello said. “The one thing I don’t know, if it’s possible to tie a bow on any topic, like shortstop or Zane, but there’s nothing crazy going on and I don’t think you all will be provided an aha moment like this is a straight conclusion. it’s not that easy. There’s a lot of factors to it. I just visited with him recently, we hang out, you know he’s in a a good place, we’re in a good place, just trying to figure out what he’s going to do with his future.
“Really you can’t take away from that moment in time he had against Clemson, but really just his whole time here and his college career to this point. He’s going to add on to that story that you can’t erase, it’s just a matter of how he’s going to add on to it and he came here last year with the plan of getting to Omaha, which he did, and was a major factor. The other part of that plan was getting his opportunity in pro baseball, and for whatever reason, it just didn’t work out. When your plans get derailed a little bit, you sit back and you assess how do you want to move forward, which, again, he’s doing in the classroom and as a person. Certainly, like I said, we we hang out and talk, and so we’ll figure out what’s best, but that’ll come when the time is right, and like I said, it’s not as easy as just going this way or going that way, there’s other factors like classes and things involved.”
PHOTOS: A look at Zane Denton through the years
