Over 11,000 attend Vols, Smokies' baseball games in Knoxville

Opening day for Covenant Health Park was held Tuesday for the Knoxville Smokies. The Smokies defeated Chattanooga, 5-4, to open Knoxville’s new minor league baseball stadium located in the Old City.

6,451 were in attendance for the first baseball game at Covenant Health Park. 6,355 is capacity for Knoxville’s downtown stadium.

The Smokies are a Double-A affiliate of the Cubs and previously played in Knoxville from 1921-99. The Smokies moved to Kodak, Tennessee from 2000-24.

A second baseball game was contested in Knoxville on Tuesday. No. 3 Tennessee (32-5, 11-4 SEC) defeated Bellarmine (9-27), 13-3 in eight innings, at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. 5,305 were in attendance for the Vols’ nonconference win.

Hunter High hit a walk-off single for Tennessee, scoring Blake Grimmer, to clinch a run-rule win. Andrew Behnke (2-0) earned a win for the Vols and pitched one inning in relief, recording two strikeouts.

11,756 was a combined attendance total for both games at Covenant Health Park and Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Tuesday.

Tennessee Vols baseball playing at Covenant Health Park

Doug Kirchhofer, CEO of Boyd Sports, discussed with Vols Wire in Nov. 2023 about the Tennessee baseball playing at Covenant Health Park in the future.

"We would love to see that," Kirchhofer said. "They have played in the existing Smokies Stadium, and that would be something we would look forward to working out and hosting games here at the new stadium."

READ: Smokies look forward to hosting Vols

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This article originally appeared on Vols Wire: Over 11,000 attend baseball games in Knoxville for Vols and Smokies