Led by solid pitching and the nation’s top defense, Rod Delmonico’s 1994 University of Tennessee baseball team finished with a 52-14 overall record and posted a 24-5 SEC won-loss mark to claim the school’s first league baseball title since 1951. The team also won the SEC tournament title for the second consecutive year. The twenty-four conference victories broke the UT and SEC records for league wins in a season. Along the way, the baseball team set another SEC record with seventeen consecutive wins in conference play. The overall mark was the first time in school history that a baseball squad had registered fifty or more wins in a single season. The Vols ranked among the nation’s leaders in team earned run average for most of the season and finished the year with a conference best 2.98 ERA. Three Volunteer baseball team pitchers each topped the ten-win mark. Tennessee was designated as the host school of the NCAA Mideast Regional, and the Vols, seeded number one, posted a 3-2 record in the four-day, double-elimination tournament. After claiming the overall SEC title, UT climbed to number two in the “Baseball America” poll, marking the highest-ever ranking for the University of Tennessee baseball program. Truly a magical year for UT baseball, and one that will never be forgotten.
