Latest news with #Ensley
USA Today
13-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Hunter Ensley to play final regular-season home game for Tennessee
Hunter Ensley to play final regular-season home game for Tennessee No. 14 Tennessee (39-13, 15-12 SEC) will host Belmont (24-28, 13-11 MVC) Tuesday in its final midweek game of the season. First pitch between the Vols and Bruins is slated for 5 p.m. EDT at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The nonconference game can be watched on SEC Network+. Tuesday marks Tennessee's final regular-season home game of the 2025 season. The team will also celebrate senior day. Hunter Ensley will play his final regular-season home game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Ensley, a redshirt senior outfielder for the Vols, will conclude his career as one of the most successful players in program history. During his career, he helped guide Tennessee to four combined SEC championships and the 2024 Men's College World Series title. The Huntingdon, Tennessee native has appeared in 192 games, including 161 starts, for the Vols since 2021. He has recorded a .308 career batting average, while recording 28 home runs, 137 RBIs, 189 hits and 129 runs. Ensley earned Second-Team All-SEC preseason honors in 2025 and was named to the 2025 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award Watch List. He has been named to the SEC Spring Honor Roll three times.
USA Today
10-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Reaction to Hunter Ensley's performance against Vanderbilt baseball in series opener
Reaction to Hunter Ensley's performance against Vanderbilt baseball in series opener Hunter Ensley started in center field and was third in Tennessee's lineup on Friday to open a three-game series against No. 10 Vanderbilt (34-16, 14-11 SEC). No. 12 Tennessee (39-11, 15-10 SEC) defeated the Commodores, 3-2, at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Rankings reflect the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. Ensley went 2-for-4 on Friday, including one double, and scored one run. He scored a run in the sixth inning, sliding to home plate. In the seventh inning, Colin Barczi hit a fly ball to center field and Ensley jumped at the wall to prevent a base hit. Following Ensley's performance in the series opener for Tennessee against Vanderbilt, Vols Wire looks at social media reaction and is listed below. Saturday's game No. 2 is scheduled for 5 p.m. EDT, while first pitch for Sunday's series finale will take place at 3 p.m. EDT. Both contests will be televised by ESPN2. Hunter Ensley's catch at the wall Hunter Ensley's slide at home plate Andrew Fischer Ron Slay Hunter Ensley at bat Hunter Ensley's slide against Vanderbilt Follow Vols Wire on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hunter Ensley's catch has staying power with Tennessee baseball
Hunter Ensley made the most memorable catch of his career last June in Omaha, Nebraska. But about eight months later, you feel obligated to address it when you begin any conversation with Tennessee's center fielder. Another baseball season is about to begin. The Vols will open defense of their national championship Friday against Hofstra. But Ensley's catch still lingers. Ensley has made more spectacular catches and more difficult ones in his baseball career. But none was as high-profile as the one he executed against North Carolina in the College World Series at Charles Schwab Field. He garnered more attention by hitting a wall than most players do by hitting the ball over a wall. It was a three-part play. First, Ensley extended himself to glove a hit that seemed destined for extra bases. Next, he held onto the ball as he charged into the wall. Then, he left his mark – a smidgen of eye black to dot the fence. The play didn't just deprive North Carolina's Anthony Donofrio of a hit in the second inning. It sent a message that the Vols would do whatever it took to win a game. Tennessee delivered the same message again and again – with timely hitting and pitching, and especially in a ninth-inning rally to overtake Florida State – in claiming its first baseball national championship. That championship gave Ensley's catch staying power. 'I probably hear about it every other day,' Ensley told me. He hears about it so much that his catch has become a running joke with his teammates, proving that sports drama can – given enough time – be converted into baseball humor. 'We get it,' they say. 'You made the catch.' Not surprisingly, in the world of name, image and likeness, Ensley has been rewarded with more than fame for his memorable catch. He made a commercial with Loudon County Fence. 'It took a couple of hours,' Ensley said. 'It was a lot of fun. 'They said they had been waiting 15 or 20 years to do something with an athlete. But they had never had the perfect opportunity.' The opportunity was as apparent as the baseball still stuck in Ensley's glove after his run-in with the wall. He might as well have carved 'NIL' into the fence before coming off the field. The exhilaration of a championship season now gives way to the anticipation of another season. 'This is the most exciting time of the year,' Ensley said. 'Fall is great – all those scrimmages and practices, all the work.' But they can't surpass a real game. Ensley looks forward to bigger crowds at Lindsey Nelson Stadium – not just for an SEC series, but right away against nonconference opponents like Hofstra. Ensley, who batted .296 with 12 home runs and 48 RBIs last year, expects to have his best season. Why wouldn't he? He's more experienced, and after another year in Tennessee's intense strength-and-conditioning program, he's stronger. Coach Tony Vitello isn't one to burden players with expectations. He only asks Ensley to keep doing what he has been doing. 'Just progress as a player,' Vitello said. 'Every year, he has progressed in every single category, including as a leader, in the dugout and off the field.' ADAMS: Tennessee baseball catcher Cannon Peebles prepared for a hit comeback Despite the loss of seven starters, Ensley again will be surrounded by proven hitters, some of whom arrived via the transfer portal. Fall practice also convinced him that a revamped pitching staff will prove troublesome for opposing batters. 'They've got big-time stuff,' he said. 'They've got the kind of stuff that gets hitters out.' And they've got a center fielder who can turn hits into outs − even it means running into a wall to make the catch. John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or Follow him at: This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Hunter Ensley's catch has staying power with Tennessee baseball
Associated Press
11-02-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
COLLEGE BASEBALL '25: Defending champion Vols have new-look roster but face same high expectations
It was as if the 2024 Tennessee Volunteers were built to win a national championship with their dominant pitching and an offense that produced the second-most home runs in a season in NCAA history. They ended up with an SEC-record 60 wins and beat Texas A&M in a three-game College World Series finals. Eight players from that team were drafted, including six in the first four rounds. That's left coach Tony Vitello to approach 2025 as a building year, though much is still expected of the Vols as defending champions. They're picked second behind Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference preseason coaches' poll and are a consensus top-five team in the national polls. 'They're the 2025 team and they want to put their own stamp on this particular year,' Vitello said. 'I think our guys are ready to move on and kind of use this blank canvas they have and start splashing some paint on there.' The Vols open with a three-game home series against Hofstra starting Friday, Division I baseball's opening day. The weekend rotation could take some time to get established. Mississippi transfer Liam Doyle is in line to be the No. 1 starter. Nate Snead, a 10-game winner as a reliever last season, likely will move into a starter's role. Junior college transfer Brandon Arvidson, the returning Marcus Phillips and heralded freshman Tegan Kuhns are among pitchers competing for a spot. The everyday lineup also will look a lot different. Sluggers Christian Moore, Dylan Dreiling, Blake Burke, Kavares Tears and Billy Amick left via the draft after combining for 120 of the Vols' 184 homers. Preseason All-SEC pick Dean Curley will be in his second year at shortstop and Hunter Ensley will be back in center field. Curley and Ensley, with 12 apiece, are the top returning home run hitters. Ensley has been in the program since the post-pandemic rise of the Vols. Their 211 wins and .773 winning percentage since 2021 rank No. 1 nationally. They went 0-2 in the 2021 CWS, lost a home super regional as the No. 1 national seed in 2022 and went 1-2 in the 2023 CWS before winning it all last year. 'I definitely think there's more eyes on the baseball program now,' Ensley said. 'You could really just walk over to the baseball field and kind of look around, and to me, that kind of tells you the whole story. More people are buying in, more people are invested, more people are involved, more people kind of want to be around the program.' So while the names on the lineup card change, the expectations remain the same for the team's expanded fan base. The Vols ranked seventh nationally in attendance last year with an average of 5,339 per game, more than twice as many as the 1,721 per game that showed up in Vitello's first season in 2018. 'We built a little bit of a brand here,' he said. Since South Carolina won back-to-back titles in 2010-11, only one returning national champion has made it back to Omaha, Nebraska, for the CWS. That was Florida, which won the 2017 title and lasted four games in the 2018 CWS. LSU, the 2023 champion, had a losing record in SEC play and lost in regionals last year. Mississippi and Mississippi State, winners of the previous two championships, finished under .500 and didn't make the NCAA Tournament the next year. Snead makes no promises about how the Vols will fare the year after their championship. 'I mean, we lost a lot of our guys that contributed to that team,' he said. 'So obviously the expectation for everybody outside of the team is always there, and they always want us to win. Obviously, we want to win, too, but it's just baseball. I mean, you really can't control much. So we're going to go out there and just play. Hopefully we win again.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Expanding network of river gauges to warn of flooding before it happens
Feb. 10—A series of new river gauges providing real-time water levels went online just days before Helene and is credited with saving lives along the Pigeon. It is now being expanded even more, including new gauges in Waynesville and Maggie Valley, which also saw flooding this time around. "Those river gauges were integral in helping us monitor the river levels," Commissioner Chairman Kevin Ensley said. "They really did save lives." Ensley watched the river gauges in horror all through the night as Helene's fury raged. "It was a little depressing, but it was informative. We knew where we had to get people out and how much time we had," said Ensley, who camped out for the night at Haywood Emergency Services. "I was amazed at the information we were getting." Beefing up the network of river gauges along the Pigeon became a priority after flooding from Fred in 2021. The county was caught off guard by what witnesses described as a "wall of water" barreling down the Pigeon River. Six were killed. Others clung to trees, fled to attics or raced to higher ground. It took a while to get the river gauges installed, from finding the money to picking locations to wiring them up. They went live in the nick of time. "We were able to get those online about a week prior to the storm," said Zack Koonce, Haywood Emergency Management coordinator. When Helene hit, they could monitor a real-time feed showing the water creep higher and higher and higher. "We had the ability to predict when the peak was going to occur," Koonce said. With memories of Fred still fresh, weather forecasts alone were enough to call for evacuations along the Pigeon in advance of Helene. But not all heeded the warnings. The river gauges provided hard evidence that a flood was coming. "We could communicate with them directly that at 4 a.m. it would be at this height right here. And then take action to get folks out of harm's way," Koonce said. Tricky terrain More river gauges are now being planned after Helene — a recognition of the unique mountain topography where a feeder creek can cause rivers to swell in a heartbeat. "It is very beneficial for us to have a vast network with the different terrains we have and the different water systems feeding into one river," Koontz said. Commissioner Brandon Rogers was mesmerized by the live-feed during Helene. "You could see the levels rising as it moved downstream through Cruso and Bethel and Canton. That's a mountain issue because you have all these creeks and bodies of water flowing into the river that keeps getting larger," Rogers said. Unlike old-school river gauges of the past, new gauges are all tied to a central network easily viewed by the general public online. That's especially beneficial since the suite of river gauges dotting Haywood County fall under different agencies, including the state, the county and USGS. The public can see the gauges in real time and sign up for text alerts when water levels reach various thresholds at at Bridges are the ideal spot to mount river gauges. Luckily, the new monitors installed before Fred held their ground in the torrents. "We had one that did get hit by a piece of debris and got turned sideways," Kontz said. But, "Thankfully, none got major damage so they are still online and usable and accessible for the public to see." One river gauge mounted to the Charles Street bridge in Clyde that belongs to state emergency management got knocked loose, but was found. "They were able to locate it and hopefully get back in service soon," Kontz said. New gauges in Waynesville and MaggieA $108,000 project to install seven new river gauges was approved by Haywood County commissioners this week. Funding will come from a state grant. —J-Creek One gauge will be installed on Jonathan Creek upstream of the Jonathan Creek Fire Department, which sustained flood damage during Helene. There are two existing river gauges on Jonathan Creek: one at the upper end of Maggie Valley near the Ghost Town parking lot and one near Jonathan Valley Elementary School. —Waynesville One gauge will be installed on Allens Creek in Waynesville. There are two existing gauges in Waynesville along Richland Creek: one upstream of Walmart on the bridge leading to Autumn Care and one near Waynesville Middle School. —Pigeon The other five "new" gauges will actually replace existing gauges along the Pigeon. The five being replaced had initially been funded by the paper mill owner Pactiv Evergreen, but will now be owned by the county. "We will be replacing those with our river gauges that we will maintain and use," Koonce said.
