Former Vol Zane Denton announced his commitment to Austin Peay baseball on Saturday.
“Let’s get to work,” Denton said.
He played at Tennessee in 2023 after transferring from Alabama. Denton and the Vols advanced to the College World Series last season.
The third baseman announced on Aug. 5, 2023 he would return to Tennessee for the 2024 campaign. He did not play for the Vols this season and entered the NCAA transfer portal on Thursday.
Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello provided an update on Denton in January ahead of the 2024 season.
“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.”