Tony Vitello explains what he wants Tennessee remembered by

Tennessee will leave Omaha with a sense of disappointment, wanting to go further. LSU ended the Vols season on Tuesday night in an elimination game, 5-0. Head coach Tony Vitello does not want that to be the lasting memory of his team, though. He wants people to remember the 2023 season as one where they fought on a daily basis.

“Kind of what you fantasize being if you claim to be a competitor or if you compete at all,” Vitello said when asked how he wants the 2023 team to be remembered. “You’ll get after it, no matter what and when you get knocked down, you’ll get back up. And when you get knocked down again, you’ll get up even quicker.”

There were several times in the postseason when Tennessee got knocked down. A punch came pretty quickly in Hoover, with Texas A&M taking them down in the first game. Before even settling in at the SEC Tournament, a trip back to Knoxville was already being planned.

Tennessee responded by winning three straight in the Clemson Regional and giving them redemption in a Super Regional — this time against Southern Miss.

And still, a first-game loss saw the Vols once again facing adversity before rattling off two straight wins and making the College World Series. A goal for the program after being the No. 1 overall seed in 2022 and falling short of Omaha.

Include the win against Stanford to stave off elimination for another day and Vitello is proud of how the team performed.

“I think it was a competitive group,” Vitello said. “We talk about perspective. There’s a variety of tradition within each program and it takes a lot in our league to brag about tradition. For us in particular, we wanted to get to a regional, then we wanted to have a roster that was really athletic, and then we wanted to get here (College World Series).

“And then we wanted to get here a win a game. This group did it… Pretty special group that will be remembered by everyone in this room for a lot of stuff, love them or hate them. I love them.”

Vitello went on to discuss how the program will want to learn from the experience and continue to move forward. Once Tennessee does make it another step — eventually, Vitello hopes for a national championship — the 2023 team will be remembered for the progress made along the way.