Tony Vitello admits Tennessee did a bad job managing pitchers in Vanderbilt win

Tennessee coach Tony Vitello was happy to get the win Saturday against Vanderbilt, though there was one area he wished he did better. The Vols played four pitchers in the 7-6 victory and Vitello expressed disappointment postgame in the way he managed his bullpen.

Drew Beam got the start and earned the win after pitching the first 5.1 innings to strike out six and allow five runs. Kirby Connell entered to relieve him after Beam gave up a single and a double back-to-back in the bottom of the sixth inning.

However, Connell wouldn’t even last the remainder of the inning before he was replaced by Aaron Combs. He pitched the next 2.2 innings before Nate Snead closed things with the final two outs for the save.

“It was nice to get the win and everybody threw well, but as far as what my job is — maybe I jinxed myself,” Vitello said. “We were joking during the in-game interview to see if we can affect the game, but really once the game starts it’s on the players. Just a bad job honestly with the pitchers and how we were doing stuff, what our plan was.

“Yet we’ve got good pitchers that pick you up, guys that make plays defensively. I would’ve liked to manage that a lot better, but you’ve got three really good pieces that come out of the bullpen.”

It was still an impressive outing for the Tennessee pitching staff, which got to show off some of its depth with the season entering the home stretch. AJ Causey has been impressive all season, and led the Vols to an 8-4 win in the opening game of the series on Friday with seven strikeouts.

However, it’s the players behind him that truly make Tennessee a dangerous team in Tony Vitello’s estimation. Although he wasn’t pleased overall with how me managed the game Saturday, he noted that one silver lining is Snead and Connell are still in game shape heading into Sunday.

“Combs, he can go out there and get one big out like he did last year or this year he can work his way up to 80 pitches,” the coach said. “Then Snead’s kind of been a Swiss army knife for us in so many ways and everybody kind of knows what Kirby (Connell) does for us. I think the best thing out of the deal was we were able to win the game and Snead will be available tomorrow. Kirby also, for a guy who can throw a ton, has barely thrown this weekend at all.”

Tennessee will aim for the sweep against Vanderbilt on Sunday with the opening pitch set for 3 p.m. ET.