Tony Vitello addresses Drew Gilbert suspension, plan for Super Regional game two

Tennessee‘s star outfielder Drew Gilbert and pitching coach Frank Anderson were ejected from the Voltuneers Super Regional game one loss to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish following a strike call that Gilbert felt should have been called a ball. Now suspended, the two will miss game two of the Super Regional.

Gilbert immediately turned around, obviously saying something to the umpire, who promptly threw him out of the game. This brought a swift reaction from the Tennessee bench and especially Anderson, who walked himself nearly to the plate to give the umpire a piece of his mind before being shown the door as well.

“The umpire was saying get Drew [Gilbert] out of there – out of the dugout or else he’s going to get suspended,” Vols head coach Tony Vitello said. “And then later I was told that both of those guys would be suspended for tomorrow.”

The ejection came before a late game rally from the Vols, who scored four unanswered runs over the last four innings, but still wasn’t enough for Vitello’s squad to remove the six-run deficit the Irish enjoyed at the time of the ejections.

What makes Gilbert’s suspension even more brutal is that the Vols are loosing a slugger that bats a whopping .373 on the season. They’ll surely miss the SEC Tournament MVP’s 71 RBIs, 21 doubles and 11 home runs.

Now, Vitello and the Vols need a new cleanup hitter and a new man in the outfield, though Vitello wouldn’t specify who he would slide into that crucial role.

“You’ve got to have a different guy in the four-hole,” Vitello said. “I don’t know necessarily who it would be, but we’ve had other guys in that spot. Drew [Gilbert] went through a phase in the year where a little [he dealt with a] bit of hamstring stuff, and then also we’ve mixed guys in and out of the lineup early in the year, not not this deep.

“So, we’ll see. The guy we’ll put in for him is a guy just like Drew. If we’re going down, I want to go down with that guy.”

Now, the Vols have to defeat Notre Dame twice in two days to advance to the College World Series next week with the winner of this series advancing to play the winner of the Texas–East Carolina series.

First pitch for the Irish and Vols’ elimination game is set for 2 p.m. ET with ESPN carrying the national broadcast.