It was always going to happen at some point in 2025, Tennessee Vols fans just didn't know when. 

On Tuesday night in Knoxville, Tennessee baseball dropped its first game of the season, falling 7-6 to East Tennessee State in 10 innings. 

The Volunteers are now 20-1 after starting the season on a 20 game winning streak. 

Tennessee's loss to ETSU doesn't really mean much, if anything, at all. 

In fact, there's plenty of good that can come from the loss for the Vols. 

The hype for Tennessee was starting to grow to insane levels over the last week — especially after the Vols swept the Florida Gators last weekend. 

But as Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello pointed out on Tuesday night after the loss to ETSU, no one in the nation is "great" just yet. It's far too early in the season for anyone to be crowned. 

"Well, I hope it allows us to get back to the work because if I'm seeing stuff, then they're seeing that times 10 of how great you are," said Vitello of the loss. "The league is great. I don't want to speak for anybody, [but] no one's great yet. It's too early in the year. You're still figuring out what you got, what you don't have, and you'd like to think the ball that fans see, or you guys watch in February and March, isn't going to be as good as what you'll see in May, because teams will continue to progress. Repetitions are so valuable for these young kids.

"From our standpoint, too, we're still trying to figure out who's going to do what, and who's going to be consistent, and who has a lack of fear on game day and things like that. So I think just to get back to the work. There'll be a few less distractions now that the talk of being the greatest and all that stuff is over with."

It's easy for players to get caught up in the outside noise when the team is undefeated and everyone is offering heaps of praise. 

But baseball isn't a game where you can put it on cruise control and dominate. The game will humble you quickly if you're not in the right competitive mindset on a daily basis. 

The good news for the Vols, however, is that while it was a great win for ETSU on Tuesday night in Knoxville (full credit goes to their players and coaching staff), the loss doesn't impact Tennessee's outlook for the 2025 season in any way. More losses, in fact, are on the way for the Vols this season. 

It might not be a bad thing to get this loss out of the way before traveling to Tuscaloosa to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide later this week. The SEC, as usual, is a quality league. And there will be some tough series (starting this weekend at Alabama) on the horizon for the Vols. 

A midweek loss that helps refocus Tennessee's mindset isn't the worst thing in the world. 

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