Tony Vitello admits frustration in offensive struggles against LSU

For head coach Tony Vitello and the Tennessee Volunteers, their season is over. It ended at the hands of LSU, who shut them out in Omaha.

After the game, Vitello admitted that he was frustrated with the team’s offensive struggles against LSU.

“I don’t think so,” Vitello said when asked if the team pressed offensively. “I think there was more frustration at times than we’ve had as of late. Maybe a word I can’t say up here, or two, like that.”

LSU shut out Tennessee 5-0. However, the Volunteers did have their chances to win the game. That included loading the bases in the seventh inning before letting LSU off the hook. In total, Tennessee got seven players on base but couldn’t bring them around.

“But that was just because guys were trying and it was a tight game. So, each pitch you could feel a little bit, but I mean certainly in pregame and at the start of the game, there wasn’t moments of tension,” Vitello said.

“You know, when I referenced mistakes, they really made us pay on walks and then defensive mistakes, and even when we don’t field that bunt, I mean everything was all good. We make a mistake later and you knew the guy was gonna come up to the plate. I was just dying somebody would be on base for him because you knew he was gonna respond. That’s just what he does.”

Tony Vitello says the team is in a new category

This was the first year that Tennessee won a game in the College World Series under Tony Vitello. In fact, it was the program’s first win at this stage since 2001. Because of that win and this run in the College World Series, Vitello believes that Tennessee is in a new category.

“And as far as the whole team goes, much was made about preseason rankings with this particular group. I think guys like Drew [Beam] and others helped kind of get our program to a new category. And no disrespect to any writers or anything like that. We certainly had a lot of talent. But I didn’t think we deserved to be where we were at the beginning of the season. I let them know that. Just a lot of new faces. A lot of things that we had to replace, and we did that by the end of the year, in my opinion,” Vitello said.

“I know we won’t be one of the last two teams standing, because number two was our highest preseason ranking, but we kind of challenged these guys to actually become that. And maybe we are at least top five or somewhere in that category again — no disrespect to anybody else. So that’s what I’ll remember this team for. And our program needs to get better. But this was a group that helped our program improve, no question, and did some things that others have never done.”