Tony Vitello believes handling adrenaline will be biggest part of Evansville matchup

No. 1 overall seed Tennessee made their way out of the Knoxville Regional with relative ease, and now need to center themselves ahead of a super regional weekend against Evansville, the 4-seed out of their regional in Greenville.

The Volunteers escaped the opening weekend in just three games, but head coach Tony Vitello still has his concerns ahead of the series against Evansville. When asked what his No. 1 concern is heading into the weekend, he answered:

“I think controlling the adrenaline and intensity of of the whole deal. I think our crowd helps us a ton. You got to get a little cautious, though, about getting too amped up. And I think our guys handled it great.”

Those jitters from the first couple of postseason games have now gone away and Vitello believes the Vols will be helped by already having played a few tournament games at home in front of those crazy crowds.

“Again, to me, being the second weekend in a row back home in a playoff environment should help our guys have a vision of what it looks like and how to handle it.”

The Tennessee coach is hoping his team comes out with no nerves from the start, which he doesn’t believe was the case in their last win.

“But to me, the one negative example from last weekend would be: we’re in a position to finish or win the regional against a good team on on Sunday night in Southern Miss, and our guys were a little too amped up about finishing the job or whatever cliche you want to throw out there. For about three or four Innings, there was a little too much tension.”

Luckily, Tennessee was able to calm down and find their groove to sneak out a win in that matchup to advance to the next round. But that’s life in the postseason, according to Tony Vitello.

“So whether it’s trying too hard or tension or too much adrenaline, those are things that come with the nature of it being a postseason game and playing at home in front of a juiced-up crowd,” he added. “So our guys need to enjoy it, because they’ve worked hard to get here, and then they just need to play ball.”

There’s also the issue of playing a 4-seed in the super regional. Surely Vitello is keeping the Volunteers very respectful of their opponent, no matter how they were seeded in the regional round.