Everything Tony Vitello said on an opening weekend series-sweep of Hofstra

Tennessee capped the perfect weekend with a 13-1 win over Hofstra in Game 3 of the series on Sunday. Below is a written transcript of the Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello postgame press conference.

On what he liked about Nate Snead, handling the start…

“It started with your guys’ observation yesterday. We got three northerners or three cold weather, as far as their birth place, pitchers going for us this weekend. They didn’t really bat an eye at the crazy circumstances and the wind. But what I liked most about his outing was kind of what we’ve had in similar outings, when the adrenaline got a little under control and he was just out there pitching, it was pretty dang good. His best inning was his last inning. Probably went to the bullpen quicker than we thought we would. There was a long delay between the second and third inning and we’ve got a lot of confidence in him so I prefer to be winning games by more than one run but he’s a guy that we trust pitching in games where it’s a one run differential one way or another.”

On what he learned about the team this weekend…

“I think there’s some guys that like to play. Hey, I’m a coach so I like practice day and scrimmage days but the bottom line is games aren’t scrimmages. And you have to come out to hunt and come out to compete. And you got a guy like (Austin) Breedlove there that finishes the game. He was better today than he’s been in any scrimmage since he’s been here. You’d like to coach the world’s greatest player, Kobe Bryant, the same guy every single day you’re ever around them. But scrimmages aren’t games. Regardless of temperate or wind or any other set of circumstances you come up with, you find out a lot about your guys on game day and I think we got some guys that like to compete and maybe there’s even more, I don’t know if it’s depth. We’ll find out by May if it’s depth but the bottom line is we’ve got some puzzles to solve. What’s the best combination of this guy in this spot or this guy in that spot.”

On managing getting so many guys playing time…

“I laugh, it’s a sore topic. I was the guy that often was at the very very end of the bench dying to get in, so I like to involve a lot of guys. So do the other coaches. They, almost to a fault, work with every player the exact same way. Just trying to get guys better regardless of what their role is on the team. But going back to me laughing, I messed something up today where I owe a guy an at-bat just because we were trying to make a bunch of changes in one spot. We’ll make it up to that guy and at the same time it is kind of nice that are happy to see their buddy or teammate go in in their spot or just get in the game or do well and then it kind of feeds itself. Then when those guys are out of the game, they’re doing the same for whoever is in the game. I thought the guys did a good job of being hooked up— you sign up for three nine inning games but it’s what we got. You got 21 total innings and I thought they were hooked up for every inning, is my point.”

On what he liked from Jay Abernathy this weekend…

“Those swings that he took yesterday and then today that are line drives down the left-field line or towards left field that are true, they don’t have any fade to them, you have to be a good hitter and have a good swing to do that. And I think he just is truly that, a good hitter. Obviously he’s quick, so that speed will play at any position you put him at. He’s got a good release, you saw him turn the double play. In the outfield, not as strong of an arm as Jordan Beck, but he can get rid of it as quick as lightning out there. So, a pretty versatile player we got on our hands. He was a kid, like many of these freshmen, that could have signed in the draft. The one thing we committed to him was, he was a high school shortstop, like a lot of guys, by the time he’s done here, we want to prove, him and the coaching staff combined, want to prove that he is capable of playing shortstop at the next level. But I think for us, the two spots he will fill the most are left field and second base. We’ll probably move him to center at some point, too, but he’s just finding his way defensively and getting better every day which is fun to see.”

On why Abernathy didn’t start any games this weekend…

“Me having a weird brain, sitting up in the office longer than I should and kind of coming up with different stuff. I kind of liked the idea of, we went with some older guys, if it was kind of close, try to get some mature guys out there, but I like the idea where you can pick a spot where he pinch runs in the middle of the game, you kind of give him a cheater’s start. A base stealer’s, you know Rickey Henderson, he’s gotta get on first base in order to steal second. So, you can give Jay [Abernathy] a cheater’s start if somebody is already on base and you pinch run. Because he can play a bunch of different positions, I think we can do that throughout the year. But you guys were at scrimmages, he could very easily walk up to that office and say, ‘I deserve a start.’ And all I could do is shake my head and say, ‘You’re right.’ But it’s nice that we have some other guys that could do that, too.”

On what he likes about Ryan Combs potentially being the closer…

“We just haven’t done it since we’ve been here. [Garrett] Crochet was kind of closing games his first year, but also, we were trying to start him. Ever since then, we’ve kind of had this weird hybrid of, at the most, two or three guys that we really trust at the end of the game. The ‘ol ‘You can go home and sleep well regardless of how the outcome is.’ It was [Sean] Hunley, Kirby [Connell] and Redmond [Walsh] one year in particular. In college baseball, you may bring in a guy to finish the game in the seventh, and you don’t have a guy that can just go every game out there in the 9th inning. So, I think he’s one that has put his hat in there, Tegan [Kuhns], [Nate] Snead, when he’s not starting. We fully trust them to be the final guy at the end of the game. We’ll see. I think along with some of these other things we’re talking about, moving guys around, Jay [Abernathy] starting or coming off the bench, we’ll try a little bit of everything and hopefully by conference play just have a better idea or understanding of what our best moves are.”

On Tegan Kuhn’s availability…

“He’s been sick. A lot of guys have been sick on our team and I think a lot of people have gotten sick in Knoxville, unfortunately. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know if it is the cold or what is going on. He’s been floating around the facility, and he tried to come up here and get in uniform yesterday. We appreciate the competitiveness but it is not the time of the year to be pushing it. Also, we want o limit how many guys get sick Weh he comes back, he will be chomping at the bit and I look forward to it. He is a fun one to watch compete.”   

On Dylan Loy’s availability…

“He is a little bit further along in his throwing progression but he’s still a little bit of a ways before we put him out there in a game. You guys who were on hand saw him throw in a scrimmage and he got a couple of innings under his belt. We want a couple of more times where he faces out hitters because we put him out here. When it is those guys like – no one has asked about AJ [Russell] – but when it is those guys like AJ Russell or Garrett Crochet, we went through it with him, they are always going to want to be out her before we put them out here. Which is fine. You want guys who compete. But we are always going to play it conservative – especially when it relates to asking care of guys bodies, whether it is [Cannon] Peebles, [Andrew] Fischer, [Dylan] Loy. The time will be coming soon for him, which is great. In the meantime, it allows us or forces us to use other guys. And maybe you see some stuff. Luke Payne, maybe he can be an outfielders after catching that popup. Maybe you see some stuff that you normally wouldn’t.”

On the comradery despite competitiveness….

“Yeah, it’s a huge issue. Huge topic amongst the coaching staff’s meetings. It is a concern for me. I told you guys before like last year at the beginning of the year – one of my deals was I just wanted to come to work everyday and be excited about it. Those guys took that to the tenth degree in winning some games, but also it was fun. It is difficult to do that in this day in age. To hand the baton off to someone and have them pinch hit for you and be willing to knuckle him up or whatever. You can feel a vibe in the dugout when they’re pulling for a guy. If you don’t have everybody doing that, it is negative. I’ve been that guy when I’m starting and the other second baseman wants me dead. You can feel it. It just don’t work. I don’t know how you coach it. I try and sprinkle in some things. I think our guys pick up the vibe that when our old players come back here, the first thing that is talked about is how they compete and what kind of teammate they were. It’s not how many at-bats they got or how many stats they got. Those things are important but what is more important is that comradery. You get the sum being more than the parts and a bunch of guys are doing that. Again, I could answer that questions for 30 minutes or write a thesis on it embrace it is a delicate topic with the portal and family members. There are some family members – we got some tremendous family members that are a part of our program – but sometimes you run into some people thinking they are the CEO or the ones playing. It messes things up. Right now, Is need something to be angry about in that category because they seem to be very low maintenance in that category and some others. As of right now. Maybe we will come up with something to yell at [Nate] Snead about. [Laughs].”