Tony Vitello stresses importance of versatility in offensive approach

Tennessee got the series win over the weekend against Kentucky , which was clinched by a 10-7 victory over the Wildcats that marked their 11th straight victory of the season. The Vols got things going early with a strong four-run second inning to give them an early lead, which featured a walk and five singles.

Head coach Tony Vitello was asked about the inning, detailing how important the ability to get it done in various ways is on offense.

“Yeah, it was great,” Vitello said. “Obviously, we’ve hit a few homers this weekend, but there’s a bunch of different ways you can help the team win.”

First baseman Blake Burke led off the inning and was walked, which was followed by an onslaught of four straight singles for the Volunteers. Shortstop Maui Ahuna capped off the scoring run with a 2 RBI single of his own to give the Volunteers a 4-0 lead, a lead they’d go on maintain for the rest of the contest.

“And Blake Burke, he hits them further than anybody during BP, but another thing we just discussed is last night it was the walk that he helped us with, or hurt the opponent, and today it was the single,” Vitello said. “And as the game goes on, again, if you’re kind of searching for ways, how we gotta win, you’ll end up finding there’s a bunch of different ways to do it.”

Singles may not be sexy, and fans would likely prefer to see Burke his another one of his 15 home runs on the season over getting walked. But an efficient offensive attack with the ability to score runs in a multitude of ways is dangerous to stop and has boded well for Tennessee this season.

“And I like it when he, or the other big guys in this conference (Jac) Caglianone or whoever it might be hit a long one is really cool, but at the end of the day you’re trying to have more than the other team on the scoreboard. And that can come with Cal Stark getting hit by a pitch, or Blake Burke just getting a single, good base running, whatever it might be,” Vitello explained.

The Volunteers ended the day with 10 hits for seven runs and the entire three-game series with 29 hits and 20 runs, as they’ll look to keep that offensive momentum going in their next game versus Belmont on Tuesday.