Tony Vitello calls out 'poor effort' by Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt

The SEC Tournament officially will not see a repeat winner this season, as No. 8 seed Tennessee was run-ruled by No. 4 seed Vanderbilt 10-0 in Saturday’s Semifinal matchup. Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello was not happy with his team’s play following the loss.

“Poor effort,” Vitello said to kick off his opening comments. “Not what everyone woke up early for. But also, hats off to Vanderbilt. They outplayed us today and a lot of stuff piled up for us. Maybe a bad itinerary by me leading into the game, but the guys were energetic going in.”

After holding off the No. 1 overall seed Texas in Friday night’s 7-5 Quarterfinal victory, Saturday was an all systems failure for the Volunteers. Tennessee went 4-25 (.160) at the plate with 11 strikeouts (all looking). It was just 2-10 with runners on base and was 0-6 with runners in scoring position. It was the first time Vitello’s team had been shutout this season.

“The theme early was some ground balls including the bunt getting past our guys. We maybe could have been quicker or made a better pitch, but Vanderbilt did what they needed to do offensively. We had a couple of inning where we could have done something but we did not. Overall, just needed to be better in every area.”

‘Vols were no match for Vanderbilt’s pitching

Vanderbilt killed Tennessee with the small game, as all 10 of its runs were scored via an RBI-single or a wild pitch. Its pitching duo of junior right-handed pitcher Cody Bowker and sophomore right-hander Connor Fennell then did their jobs perfectly, holding Tennessee to just four hits in the seven-inning span.

“Maybe it’s the long week, the extra-inning game against Texas or the long season,” Vitello said when asked what truly went wrong. “Anytime it doesn’t go well you want to reflect on it. It’s easy to throw darts at things but we invest time in everything we’re doing. Ahead of time we try to prepare the best way possible, and if it doesn’t go well you make adjustments. Even if sometimes it is the right move and right itinerary, but you didn’t get the right outcome.”

Tennessee was held scoreless by Vanderbilt for just the fourth time since 2018 and was run-ruled by the ‘Dores for the first time since May 5, 1992. They’ll now turn their attention to next Monday’s NCAA Tournament Selection Show, where they are currently projected to host a Regional in Knoxville.