Tony Vitello pushes back against idea reaching CWS determines season success

Tennessee and coach Tony Vitello suffered a surprising upset at the hands of Evansville on Saturday afternoon, throwing the Knoxville Super Regional into a winner-take-all game on Sunday.

For the Vols it was a significant setback, but not one that changes anything about how the season should be perceived, according to Vitello. Not even if Evansville should take Game 3 and the right to reach Omaha from Tennessee.

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“There’s no way it’s not a successful season,” Tony Vitello said, in response to a question from a reporter about whether the season would be a failure with a Game 3 loss. “Basically the way the numbers go is we don’t need to worry about anything other than tomorrow. But the numbers go you want to play at home. You’d like to be playing, first of all, in a regional. Then if you can you’d like to be playing in, if you’re fortunate enough, a Super Regional. Then it’s a race to two wins. That’s really all it is.”

There’s no doubt now, though, that the pressure is thoroughly on Tennessee. The burden of expectations falls on the Vols in a way it simply doesn’t for the Purple Aces at this point.

After all, Tennessee was the nation’s No. 1 seed entering the tournament.

Still, Vitello believes that any notion that the season might be a failure is something entertained only by message boards, social media users and bored fans rather than by anyone in his building.

“You could, if you’re bored and you’re on your phone too long or you get involved in social media chats, which will be up for you all, not our players, you could paint all kinds of different pictures tomorrow,” Tony Vitello said. “But really what it is is we’re fortunate to host Evansville, one of the best teams in the country. And we’re trying to win the series tomorrow.”

Tennessee will lock horns with Evansville starting at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU.