Everything Tony Vitello said following a midweek win over Bellarmine

Tennessee skipper Tony Vitello met with members of the media Tuesday night following Tennessee’s midweek 13-3 victory over Bellarmine in nonconference action from Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The following a video and a written transcript from the Tony Vitello postgame press conference.

Up Next: No. 4 Tennessee plays host to Kentucky this weekend for a three-game series in Knoxville. Friday evening’s opener is scheduled for 6:30 PM and will be streamed on the SEC Network+

On Andrew Behnke’s performance against Bellarmine…

“That he got kind of a double whammy, if that is the right phrase, got out of a jam, but also got three outs. That was his role last year was, you know, come in, get us out of a jam. Did it several times, or on certain occasions, it was just bridge the gap to the next guy. Go out there, get you three outs. And he did both those things tonight. 

“I know all of us want to, including him, want to get in a rhythm as the season goes on, and find a particular role for him. I think getting to kind of check both those boxes helps push him forward into that and, you know, he was down there (in the bullpen) a couple of times down there in Oxford. It just didn’t pop up that way. In part, for the most part, our guys threw well. We played better defense behind some of those guys. The pitch counts even smaller for the guys that we did use.”

If he feels like Behnke is close to having a roll on the weekend…

“Yeah, I think it’d be similar to last year at this point, but there’s plenty of season left. I mean, we’re technically only halfway through the SEC season, so there’s a lot of valuable baseball to play, and just a lot of innings in general.

“You know, sore topic, left our guy hanging down there in the bullpen that works his butt off, but it’s the way it works. So yeah, there’s plenty of ball left, and obviously, if you look at the last two times he’s been out there, he’s throwing the ball better and better. And one of the better lineups we’ve seen the whole year is ETSU, and he threw so well against them, we took him out because we didn’t want him to be gassed out for the weekend. And it so happened he didn’t pitch that weekend, you know, just kind of the way it worked out.”

On what he saw differently from Dean Curley back in the lead-off spot to go 3-for-5 with a double…

“It was his birthday, but a little more aggressive. He was in two-strike counts a couple different times, but I think it was either a foul ball here, a close call here, but you know, in that spot, he’s really good about building a count, getting on base, but at the same time, soon as the game starts, I don’t care who we’re playing, he is one of the more physical guys. A guy who probably has the easiest power, or at least in the group of guys that has the easiest power. So we want him being aggressive and getting his swing off. 

“It’s kind of a delicate balance when he’s in that spot. Four hole, I don’t think you’re, you know, or if we drop either of those guys, (Hunter) Ensley or Dean, in the three hole, I don’t think you want your mindset to change too much, because you kind of only come up in that slot to start the game, and then the rest is a jumbled up mess. You’re just trying to put together innings and trying to win games. So by now, he’s seen about every situation you can see in college baseball, and all we need him to do is be himself. And I think at times he’s taken away some aggressiveness because he’s been in that spot. So we’ll remind him of that .”

If the plan is for AJ Russell to be available this weekend against Kentucky…

“Yeah, I mean, at this point because the guys have thrown the way that they have, and I know we took Teagan (Kuhns) out earlier last week, but still, if you look at his overall effort in SEC play, he’s earned the right to almost — I won’t say lock down innings — but certainly throw innings for us every weekend, and it’ll probably be in a starting fashion. 

“And then Marcus (Phillips) is our guy. So for now, I think it’s a hybrid. It’ll be relief, but I don’t have any intention of bringing him in right in the middle of an inning to start the whole deal. So probably starting an inning. And every pitcher does that, including the starters the first inning. I had a conversation about somebody else about that. The only difference about the first inning is the starter gets to play catch in the outfield, which I’m sure that’s beneficial. But these are big boys. They can get outs all kinds of different ways.”

On how helpful it is to get Russell back in the fold and bolster the pitching staff…

“I’ll build up to saying it so it doesn’t sound like I’m being a smart ass or smart aleck, whatever. How valuable would three outs have been on Sunday? You know? Or there’s several other games I could bring up too. So let’s just say that’s his role, which I’m not. We haven’t even really discussed it. But whether it’s him or Behnke or somebody else, if you can go out there and get us one to three outs, or you get us four outs, that’s a pretty big deal over the course of an SEC weekend, even if it’s in a loss.”

If it was nerve-racking watching Gavin Kilen run on his injured hamstring at Ole Miss…

“Yeah, it was for me, but it was secondary to Fisch (Andrew Fischer) who was behind him. And, you know, Fisch kind of scared me. Ran up right in my face and said, you know, oh my gosh, Gavin scared me when he was running. But if you’re around Gavin too, he gives you a sense of security, because he’s so secure in who he is. And I think that’s a good lesson learned for a lot of our guys, especially the younger ones. They want to be playing at this level, you know, if they weren’t, but sometimes it can waver. And we got a few guys whose self belief or comfort in their own skin is unwavering. And you know, not only does it benefit them and let them play their best, but it makes you feel comfortable when you’re around them too, especially if you’re in a coaching role.”

If Russell is still working towards being as stretched out as he possibly can from a pitch count standpoint…

“Yeah, the last time he threw was again, the second time where — maybe it was the third time where —well, he threw again recently, so the third time where he got up and down twice. So the next move would be to get up and down three times, if we were just training. But of course, you know, we’re not in spring training, we’re in SEC ball. So it’s a delicate balance I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of, you know, wouldn’t be any — you got to play the game to win — but we got this side bar issue going on that’s unique, so maybe he gets some outs and still throws in the bullpen. He’s done that a couple different times. So again, it’ll be a little bit of a hybrid in that case too. He wants to help us win games. We want him to help us win games, but we do want to keep that — you call it stretching out. I call it building up. Kind of keep that momentum.”

On the importance of playing clean baseball against Kentucky’s style of play…

“I think, you’re talking about a brand of baseball offensively that’s maybe a little bit different than the normal stuff you see in the league, or further away from the average but no matter who it is, you can say they’re closer or further away from the average, everyone presents a different problem in our league. Mississippi obviously is going to run. They’ve got a lot of left handed hitters, a lot of older guys. So everybody presents strong competition to you in the league. I think it always comes back, at least with our group because I do believe in our group enough, we need to do us as best as we can. We haven’t done that the last two weekends. What’s great is you or the fans, again I’m not saying this abrasively, but people outside of our locker room can say whatever they want, but we haven’t played very good baseball the last two weekends compared to what we’re capable of and we’re 3-3 against two teams that could easily, especially offensively, could easily play make their way well into June. So it’s important for us to focus on who we are and make sure we keep getting better and play our best baseball.”