Tony Vitello shares health update on Jared Dickey

Tennessee could not complete their series sweep of Kentucky over the weekend, falling 10-0 to the Wildcats after winning the first two games of the series. But Sunday wasn’t their only loss, as Jared Dickey suffered an injury sliding into home plate in game two, forcing him to miss their series finale.

After Sunday’s loss, Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello gave an injury update on his key utility player.

“Some soreness in there,” Vitello said. “Just kind of confirmed, definitely real sore. More sore today than he was yesterday. So, that’s not a rush effort by us by any means. I’d like to see him out there playing as much as you all would and the fans, and of course, as eager as he is to get back out there. But we won’t rush it. The soreness needs to go away and then make sure he’s got range of motion and make sure it’s the best situation for him to get out there.”

Dickey injured his shoulder when sliding and attempting to score from third base in bottom of the seventh inning of Saturday’s game. He leads the team in batting average (.352), hits (69), and RBIs (46) this season and is a significant loss for Tennessee. But Vitello is confident and optimistic about getting some of his other players back from injury and involved overall.

“In the meantime, it’s nice to have KT (Kavares Tears) back, so you kind of make an unwanted trade there, if you know what I mean, but it’s good that Dylan (Dreiling) and KT are able to get in the lineup and get at-bats. And then Griffin (Merritt) is always itching to get out there defensively, too, so we’ll manage it as we see fit as we head into Tuesday,” Vitello said.

Vitello was asked about the severity of Dickey’s injury and if was long-term, joking about his long-term future with the team before getting into the details of his health status.

“What’s a big deal is we’re not going to have him here next year,” Vitello laughed and said. “So you’ll see him play again in a Vol uniform and then he’ll move on to his pro career. But no, it’s something we have to manage day-to-day and I stay way out of those ways. I wasn’t joking yesterday, some words were used yesterday and today that I don’t even understand but it does boil down to soreness.”

Vitello and the Volunteers are hoping to get Dickey back as soon as possible, as the team has four games remaining before the SEC Tournament kicks off on May 23.