Everything Tony Vitello said following Tennessee's 10-7 win over Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello provided some quick postgame thoughts on Friday’s second game of the series in Tuscaloosa between Tennessee and Alabama. The following is a written transcript from the Tony Vitello postgame statement.

Up Next: The series is on the line for No. 1 Tennessee and No. 12 Alabama when the two squads meet again on Saturday at 2 o’clock eastern time in the series-finale.

On responding to losing the series opener…

“They just came out more determined to start the game and then you get on a high similar to we did last night. These games are so adrenaline fueled, score a few runs early and you want to celebrate but nine innings is a long time, as you found out tonight, and at times we got it done pretty, at times we got it done ugly. Certain individuals stepped up and certain guys wish they would have done better but it really doesn’t matter how it gets done. You just have to work to get it done.”

On the pitching progression from Nate Snead to Andrew Behnke to Tanner Franklin in the ninth inning…

“Yeah, he’s (Snead) a competitor and he had taken control of the game. You want to give him an opportunity to finish it, but we probably tried to extend him a little too much. He gets a great hitter out to start the inning so let it ride a little bit after that but it snowballed quickly so with a guy like that that has so much stock in the company and is such a competitor, it’s hard to draw where that line is but would love to go back in time and take him out after Lebron, but he would have fought me tooth and nail out there in that situation. He put in his work for us and some other guys will get their opportunity tomorrow.”

On the offensive approach being good…

“Early on there were some well struck balls and in a SEC game there’s always going to be hard hit outs but there were some well struck balls and some guys that just looked like they had the right approach, as you mentioned, good balance or the right tempo at the plate, in the box. Something to build on for tomorrow because we saw a bunch of different looks. I know they tried to mix it up a lot of different ways pitching wise but we saw a guy that could definitely pitch in the big leagues. Hell, I heard he could play in the NFL, in Riley (Quick), so we did a great job there and saw a bunch of different looks but consistently our guys had a good approach.”

On Dalton Bargo having two RBI hits after pinch hitting in middle of game…

“We knew we’d want to use him somewhere in a few different spots and that just seemed to be the best situation and just didn’t try to do too much. I think he did come up in a couple big situations last night, and did have a big knock for us, but in certain situations I think just over swung a little bit or a little too much effort. Tonight he just got in there and looked like he was just playing ball and the ball was jumping off his bat without a lot of effort.”

On what he saw from junior RHP Marcus Phillips in his start against Alabama:

“He was great and I think you could make the argument, too, you never know what’s going to happen or you can’t tell what happened, and go back in time and replay a situation. You could have left him out there for a little bit more. His pitch count wasn’t necessarily up there, but we felt like D-Loy (Dylan Loy) was the guy to get us out of that jam. When Marcus threw pitches with conviction, it went really well for him tonight. I think if he goes back and watches the video, the times or occasions when they got a guy on base — I know one with a walk, a couple times with two-strike hits, were just pitches he didn’t throw with conviction. But those were blips on the radar screen because he was really good overall.”

On freshman Levi Clark’s recent struggles at the plate:

“I think there’s a little bit of extra thinking going on and a little bit of extra pulling off baseballs. Swing is good, always been good. The strength is there. The composure is a strong trait of his, but at the same time, you see a little extra try hard. He wasn’t the only one guilty of it tonight. You could kind of see some extra thinking or the wheels spinning a little bit as pitchers were being delivered. Sometimes you gotta just take a step back and say this is the game I was playing in little league and loving it and doing well. That’s why I made it all the way to this spot, so maybe you go back to your roots and play it like a little leaguer.”

On pitching plans for Saturday…

“Yeah, we’ll get together. I don’t want to speak too quickly. But obviously Tegan (Kuhns) has not been used yet. I don’t know if he’ll start, but he’ll be used. (Brandon Arvidson) has been hot, but he’s not been used. The two guys who finished — (Andrew) Behnke and (Tanner) Franklin — will be itching to get back out there. We’ll have to have a conversation with Dylan Loy. But obviously anybody and everybody is available other than our two starters (Liam Doyle and Marcus Phillips) and Nate Snead.”