Oak Ridge senior Mikee Teasley was named 2026 5Star Preps Baseball Pitcher of the Year, presented by Garza Law Firm.
BY JESSE SMITHEY
Mikee Teasley, the highly touted two-way baseball player from Oak Ridge, is already on campus at the University of Tennessee, getting his college career going. And while this new chapter in his life has helped somewhat ease the sting of not winning a state championship like he had hoped, Teasley does look back on his final campaign satisfied — especially when it comes to his pitching.
Before his final season of high school baseball, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Teasley made mechanical changes in his delivery to help retain and increase his velocity.
He added a change-up pitch to his mix, as well.
So with his fastball soaring into the mid-to-upper 90s and a few offspeed pitches to keep hitters muddled, Teasley authored an 11-0 pitching record with a 1.15 ERA and 138 strikeouts against 27 walks in 73.1 innings pitched.
5Star Preps named him the 2026 Baseball Pitcher of the Year, presented by Garza Law.
Garza Law is the proud sponsor of 5Star Preps spring sports awards.
“Just who he is as a competitor, that’s so much more than who he is as a pitcher. Knowing that he cherishes the moment. He looks forward to the competition. Nothing can faze him,” Oak Ridge coach Travis Free said. “When the moment gets big or some guys get on base and they think they’ve got him, it’s almost like he just puts a smile on his face and he strikes out the next two. It’s almost like he wants that to make himself go a little harder.
“That’s the piece that’s understated about Mikee, is his competitiveness. So as a coach, I knew we were going to win. How about that? I knew that this year, when Mikee stepped on the mound, I knew we were winning that game — no matter what.”
From 2025 to 2026, Teasley dropped his ERA and his strikeout totals jumped by roughly 10 percent.
His mental maturation in the game finally started to walk in tandem with his physical abilities.
It’s just what happens when special players truly begin to optimize their skill sets.
“When they start to figure out who they are in terms of how God designed them to move naturally, they want to know how to exploit that and maximize velo and all those things,” Free said. “When they figure it out, that’s when they start to make huge progress. Mikee, in the last year, has started to figure out who he is. And that’s why his strikeout numbers are up and his walk totals are down.
“He can self-regulate himself when he knows what his miss is. I felt like that happened early this season and preseason.”
At the 2026 state tournament, Teasley proved to be at his best.
In his lone start in Murfreesboro on the mound, he pitched 6.2 innings, striking out 13 while allowing five hits and two walks.
Offensively, he turned out to be a tough out.
He went 5-for-5 with an RBI in his first game, 1-for-2 with two RBIs in his second game, and 1-for-3 with an RBI in the final game of the season for the Wildcats. So, altogether, he batted .700 at state.
Being a two-way player helped Teasley at the plate, he said.
“You can predict what they’re going to throw in each count. That’s the biggest asset in our game that we have. Two-ways know what pitch is going to come in certain counts,” he said. “It’s a lot of work because you have to balance both (pitching and hitting). But, I mean, you have to be set in and have a certain mindset for it to be a two-way. It’s easier once you do it over a period of time.
“But, just the process of having to hit every day and throw every day is tough for some people. But to be great, you have to be able to grind. That’s something that Coach Free has always taught us.”
A two-time recipient of the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association’s Class 4A Mr. Baseball award, Teasley wound up hitting .397 as a senior with 13 doubles, five home runs, 36 RBIs, 23 walks and 30 stolen bases to go with his gaudy pitching statistics.
And, as for now, he plans to still be a two-way player for Tennessee during his freshman season. Based off players who arrived in the Vols program via the transfer portal, Teasley might have to play in the outfield if he’s not pitching.
But for Teasley, the grind and subsequent improvement in his game is what will matter most. He bypassed going into the 2026 MLB Draft in order to improve his stock even more.
His ceiling remains a high one.
“That’s why he was going to go in the Draft so high and had a chance to make life-changing money. His ceiling, he’s nowhere close to the top yet,” Free said. “He’s nowhere close to where he’s going to be. But kudos to him, because he felt like in his overall maturity as a young man, he needed a couple years at Tennessee to find out who he was on a personal level, too. So, I’m proud of him for that.
“And he’s betting on himself to be a first-round draft pick someday. I hope that happens for him.”