Tony Vitello reacts to Ben Joyce making his MLB debut

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello recently reacted to former Volunteers pitcher Ben Joyce making his MLB debut for the Los Angeles Angels.

Joyce made that debut on May 29th against the White Sox. In that game, his fastball was electric, consistently topping 102 mph. In his second appearance, against the Astros, he would be just as dominant, proving he could be one of the game’s best relief pitchers in the future.

“I was very upset I did not get to see it in person,” Vitello said. “It kind of worked out cool where he was in the Midwest because Zach [Joyce] asked to travel and the family scrambles to California, which is great for them.”

As Vitello explained, trying to figure out when Joyce would make his debut involved a lot of effort, and given where Tennessee is at in its season, it wasn’t possible to go watch him. However, the entire team was following along excitedly.

“I didn’t want us to go out there as a staff and not see him pitch. We put all this homework into it and it was pretty much set in stone, he was gonna throw yesterday or last night but with us finding out where we go and all this planning, it would have been too much of a scramble. But his brother was on the GroupMe, sending messages to the guys, and he was juiced. And watching that ball move around, it was pretty evident that the big man was juiced too and to kind of come in and then it not go well for a second, or get a baserunner, and then do what he did speaks volumes about how he just keeps maturing and how good the stuff is.”

As Vitello explained, Joyce’s quick rise to the MLB wasn’t given. It was earned through his work ethic.

“And it was pretty cool listening to the announcers because they were very complimentary, as they should. Hard work. Anyone, you know, you see it with our program in a bunch of different ways but don’t judge a book by its cover. You never know someone’s backstory and anyone who follows him outside of this community, might jump to the conclusion, well, he’s big and strong and, you know, easy for him,” Vitello explained.

“He’s 100 percent created the, I almost say the thing, which is more of a compliment, the thing that he’s become has come with work ethic, and I’ve said it before but I can’t say it enough, I mentioned it to the guys, he has created the individual that he’s become, and I don’t see him slowing down because I know that the work is not going to slow down.”

Ben Joyce is the second player from the 2022 MLB Draft to make the majors, after his Angels teammate Zach Neto.

Tony Vitello on Clemson regional draw

Tennessee is in the Clemson regional for the postseason. It’s, as Tony Vitello explained, a unique dynamic for the Volunteers.

“It’s certainly a different dynamic. It’s a four-team tournament. This year had a different quirk to it because we played at Grand Canyon and played at three different sites, but I believe our second year here we were in Pensacola, and some of those tournaments we’ve gone to — [like] Round Rock —it’s four teams at one site and it’s a fun environment. Everyone is trying to be the best team. Our job is to manage the things we can and try to be the best team in each of those categories whether it be as small as your time in your cage being valuable, body language, handling adversity or whatever you want to bring up,” Vitello said.

“With this team in particular, when you talk about being on the road, I think there is come confidence in the back pocket of our guys that they’ve been to three of the most tradition-based SEC programs in the history of the conference on the road, seen what that looks like and experienced it. Some good, some bad, but ultimately put the pieces of the puzzle together to win a road series against South Carolina, who is hosting their own regional. There is confidence through the adversity part of it but then also parallels with our team evolving and slightly improving day in and day out. They’ve improved to the point where they were able to win, again, not just on the road but against one of the best teams in the country.”