Everything Tony Vitello said on Tennessee's 18-1 win over Hofstra

Tennessee made quick work of Hofstra on Saturday to earn the series-win in two games. The Vols and Pride will conclude the weekend set Sunday morning at 11 o’clock.

Following then Vols (2-0) win, Tony Vitello met with members of the local media. Here’s a written transcription of the Tony Vitello press conference.

On the win…

“I thought there were a lot of positives that came from it. In particular, I thought Hofstra came out with a little extra edge to them. I guess you could kind of go two avenues, yesterday is exciting for all college baseball players, and we got the best of them, but they kind of came out with the attitude and the confidence that you would want if you’re a coach or almost kind of like they won the game yesterday, which provided for good competition for Marcus. 

So it kind of all starts with that, and there’s a bunch of other positives trickling down to Grim (Blake Grimmer) putting that swing on that one, like his buddy Hunter [High] did last night. But I thought Marcus handled poor weather, good competition, good swings. We didn’t keep two balls in front that we could have when he was pitching. When it was skipping like that, you don’t even have to catch it. You just keep it front, and you still have time. But despite all those circumstances, I thought he looked like a different guy than he did 12 months ago. So, a real positive there.”

On Levi Clark and Chris Newstrom’s performances…

“With those [guys], you kind of don’t really know, till the game starts, what exactly you got. I think you saw a couple pitchers just have the adrenaline going a little bit much when they came out there from the bullpen. But we do play enough here and scout our guys enough, especially when you recruit them at a real young age, you kind of know what you’re getting. And that’s a long-winded way of saying, so I don’t sound arrogant or any crazy, that’s Levi [Clark]. Levi didn’t even hit that ball hard. I mean, for him. He just kind of muscled it over the fence, and then, you know… Newy (Chris Newstrom)… he had a nice fall, but he kind of came back… He’s one of those guys I was referring to. I don’t know what clicked for him over the break, but he came back with a different attitude and how he was attacking things much more comfortably around the coaches and his teammates, and then I think he’s kind of taken to the outfield spot, too. I think it comes naturally to him, and he’s still going to get innings in the infield, and we’ll see if the catching thing ever re-occurs with him. But I think he’s really in a comfort zone out there in the outfield.”

On when he knew Marcus Phillips could be a starter…

“Yeah, and I think all of us are guilty of lumping guys in, that have really good stuff, into that category now of, like when [Luke] Hochevar was with the Royals, they had, like, four or five guys there at the end of games they would just throw. And you air it out for three outs and throw 99 (mph), and that’s it. You’re in the dugout the rest of the game.

“It wasn’t until last year when he started to really get a little more under control. But more likely the answer is this fall, where he started to command the zone well, look more polished, good off-speed repertoire and really fields his position well these days. So, just when he started to become a much more complete player and person – he’s an awesome person off the field – but just needed to grow into being a baseball player at this level. Again, I always say, northern kid, used to be a two-way guy, young for his age, not a lot of experience, but last year was a great amount of experience wrapped into one year, and it’s helping him.”

On if he likes the ‘chip on the shoulder’ mentality from guys up north…

“Yeah, I think there’s a chip on their shoulder to prove themselves. But dating back to working at University of Missouri, I don’t know what’s better, Newy is from Arizona and Levi’s from Georgia, where they’re playing before we are in high school baseball. So those guys get more reps, and they seem to be more ready early. And then you flip it, and it’s guys like Gavin [Kilen] and Marcus [Phillips] that, again, in my example, when I first started coaching, we were getting more of those guys that would have a huge gap between where they’re at and their ceiling, and they just naturally make a jump, because all of a sudden they’re getting more repetitions. And I think that still holds true to date. It’s just there’s so many nice indoor facilities now and good coaches in those facilities across the country that that’s starting to fade a little bit. But I still think it holds true. The guys in the south, on average, are a little more ready right away, like Dean [Curley] was last year, being a SoCal guy, and the guys in the north, they should get excited about maybe a little bit more room for growth.”

On what he liked about the freshmen just going about their business…

“Being their first big game – I think [Chris] Newstrom’s catch in left field, just the calm which he made it with – that’s not an easy play that he made out there. And then Levi [Clark] has got four guys in front of them that are arguably big leaguers or will end their time here as you know this and that – it’s kind of so you can kind of get wild in that moment a little bit. But he’s super calm. I didn’t really realize it until he was here – but we knew he was a good player and strong. He’s got a little killer instinct. So, just that calming presence on plays in particular, at-bats in particular. But really it was kind of there the whole day.”

On how Austin Hunley has improved from a year ago…

“A lot. It was kind of frustrating last year, because it just didn’t click for him. We saw moments of, not say ‘brilliance,’ but some really good moments from him, and then they were counterbalanced by just not clicking for him, for whatever reason. We were frustrated by it because we believe in his ability, and he works his butt off. Part of the reason might be some of those other guys did so well, he got left out of the mix a little bit. So, maybe that added to even a little bit more hunger, a little bit more determination for him to come into this year and do what I think he’s capable of doing. So does Frank [Anderson] and everybody else. Again, I think for some guys, it happens a little differently, and maybe his journey just needed a little bit more of a building up phase than we originally thought. But I think he’s in a good spot right now for his career overall. We need as many reliable arms as we can get, and he’s one of them.”

On starting pitching plans for Sunday…

“Yes, [Nate] Snead will start and then we’ll go from there. Obviously [Andrew] Behnke, he’s not thrown yet. We had him down there. [Ryan] Combs has not thrown yet. There’s several freshmen that are probably looking in between every inning to see if they need to run down to the ‘pen and have their first career outing. So, there’s a decent chance one of those guys. [Brayden] Sharp, obviously got the at-bat, but we completely have high hopes for him, I guess is what I should say for him on the mound, too. So, we’ll see how we do it, but [Nate] Sneed will get a true start tomorrow, kind of like these last two guys did. Then your question, we can revisit it after the game. He’ll be a Swiss army knife for us no matter how tomorrow goes on.”

On how well the preseason prepared Chris Newstrom and Levi Clark for two-out hitting…

“Yeah, new strikes, or I’m sorry, two strikes for [Chris Newstrom too with that ball he hit in the gap. Well, I think Coach [Josh] Elander was talking to the hitters, and at the very least our guys can say they’ve seen everything that you can throw at them for the most part. And hey, I get it. There’s other first rounders out there, and I would love to avoid the lefty from Florida State [Jamie Arnold] we saw in Omaha. He’s still in college. Everybody is going to kind of fall into a category of what we have on our staff. I mean, the velocities or a sharp breaking ball or a big physical presence. We still got a staff we’re trying to figure out pitching staff wise. But I feel like we put those kids in a bunch of different situations at the plate, and they’ve seen a bunch of good competitions. So, nothing should be a huge shock to them on game day. That doesn’t mean the competition won’t be stiff and in certain situations, but I think that helps.”

On Brandon Arvidson’s seven-pitch inning…

“It was fun to see. A little bit of a plan there for him and [Michael] Sharman where we were going to limit their pitch count no matter what. So, it was kind of what they did with it. Arv [Arvidson] did a lot with it. We got high expectations for him. You guys have been at our scrimmages. We were careful. I was going to say babied, but you got to watch what you’re saying. Although, really, I could say anything, and you just blame it on chat GPT. just say someone inserted that, however that’s all working now. I’m sure I got my own coming to me at some point. But he was good and we’re kind of building him along. It’s kind of fun. We got some guys that are ready and some guys that are pitching now [that] we’ll build along slow. A couple other guys will be joining the crew here soon too.”

On Cannon Peebles behind the plate…

“He did well. We always kind of chirp from the dugout like ‘hey, good catch’ – even if it’s a ball or a strike, it doesn’t matter. You want to see guys receive pitches well, especially the difficult ones. And he had several of those moments today. Couple [of] those guys got really good jumps. Obviously, everyone knows now how quick [Dylan] Palmer is, but he looked well or he looked sharp. I got to the office this morning, I was like, man, it didn’t come up in our talk in here yesterday about Stone [Lawless]. I like Stone a lot but he caught better and I thought he would yesterday. He did really, really well. So, if those two guys are going to continue to compliment each other and also kind of push each other and help each other. That’s a nice one-two punch back there.”