Everything Tony Vitello, players said following a victory over Baylor

Tennessee skipper Tony Vitello took time to answer questions from the media following an 11-5 win over Baylor on Sunday night. Infielder Christian Moore and outfielder Kavares Tears also spoke to reporters.

The following is a written transcript of Vitello and his player’s postgame press conference. Tennessee concluded the 2024 Shriners Children’s College Showdown with Baylor and are set to return home for the Lindsey Nelson Stadium season-opener on Tuesday with UNC Ashville.

On Kavares Tear’s three-run home run that gave them an early lead…

“It was a good adjustment by him. Coach E (Associate HC Josh Elander) got him in the cage and kept his direction going in the right way. He’s like all of them – not just the players on our team – college baseball has grown into this amazing thing, and all these guys have all this energy bottled up and they want to come out of the gates and do big things, and with that, you see some guys get outside of themselves a little bit. But I think that [hit] kind of kept him centered, and that moment encapsulated everything we wanted today to be about. It was 1-1 going into Sunday. You want to come out with a series win. And then also, anytime you lose or take one on the chin, you want to respond the right way. And he responded after we took one on the chin. We’re down 2-0 after losing last night, and again, you saw his preparation and his focus like a lot of the other guys. Ready to go. I mean I’m rambling, but I’m just going over the weekend in my head. It was very obvious what our team’s approach was before the game on Friday. Saturday, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. And maybe I was overthinking it, but it was a different vibe from our guys. And then today, I wasn’t sure how it was going to go because they seemed angry a little bit and determined, I guess, now that I see how we played. They didn’t like that last night went on. I didn’t either. And they came out and responded the right way.”

On Nate Snead’s performance…

“I don’t say this facetiously, any start – obviously Zander [Sechrist] goes out and throws the first pitch of the game – but any start where you can at least calm the storm a little bit and have the chance to win, and some games are 2-1, some games are 10-9, and without KT’s (Kavares Tears) blast, it’s not so good for Zander. But, he gets us a few outs, and every out is important, especially on Sunday. You saw that with how long the games were going today. But then Nate Snead came in and did incredibly well. He did what you do. The message I got was, ‘You should’ve put me in the game last night.’ And that’s what you do as a young athlete. You control what you can control, and when you get your opportunity, you put your best foot forward. I think he and [Chris] Stamos did that. Stamos made a record-setting play last night, and we decided to go to the back end of the game with our guy, and maybe we did that a little too early, too. Stamos was the same way. Had a little more conviction to him today, and that’s a good sign for both of those guys and ultimately for us that we get to use them.”

On what makes Billy Amick such a good hitter…

“He’s really strong, first of all. He reminded us when we were recruiting him of Trevor Story, who is from this area, and it took Trevor a while, having seen him, to get as physical as Billy is right now. And I mentioned in one interview or another, Q (strength coach Quentin Eberhardt) and he got hooked up, and he’s really taken well to his conditioning. And I think it’s affecting his defense and base-running as much as the hitting, but he’s always hit. I think my comment was, ‘I’m glad he’s wearing our color orange.’ And that’s no disrespect to anybody, I mean we are fortunate to have him, but when we saw him across the way and were scouting him, we weren’t very comfortable when he was in the box. So, he’s someone who has always hit, but he seems to be progressing in a lot of areas, and that includes hitting.”

If he felt like Christian Moore made a statement this weekend with how he played at shortstop, if he could remain at shortstop as a result while the Vols get healthier at that position…

“Yeah, I think he’s matured a lot since his first day on our campus. I think that applies in a lot of different ways, but one is in accepting the fact that he’ll do whatever he needs to do to help the team. I think he’ll still play a variety of positions before the year is over with, but more than anything, yeah, he’s a guy who thrives under a challenge. If it’s easy, you kind of lose him a little bit, attention-span wise. But if it’s an important topic you’re discussing or it’s a true challenge regardless of what it is, that’s when you’ve got his full focus. 

“He just wanted to come out and have a good weekend. He knows he’s not hiding anymore. He’s a junior. Like a few other guys — Billy (Amick) included — this is his team and I think he’s taken pride in everything he’s doing out there. Had a really good weekend all around. I think he could have scored on a passed ball, other than that, I don’t know that he did much wrong up there. You see some good pitching, you’re not going to get a hit every time up.”

On moving Dylan Dreiling up to the two-hole and moving Blake Burke down to the six-hole…

“Yeah, we’ve tried that lineup with Dreiling in the two-hole a little bit. And he’s always aggressive at the plate and swinging the bat. Burke has probably been over-aggressive and I think sometimes guys look for that permission to be confident or that permission to relax and play a little bit, and last year he took the world by storm coming out of the gates — that’s Blake Burke I’m referring to. And then today, he kind of gets a flare, a strange hit to left field there, whatever you want to call it. And in the next at-bat, he looked more relaxed than he’d been the whole year. And I think if I’m guessing right, it was a byproduct of that. Just to kind of — to be honest with you, backtracking to being in the hotel room, make him and (Cannon Peebles) a little angry. ‘Cause anybody could raise their hand and say I deserve to be two, three or four or up in the top-half of the order. But maybe get their attention a little bit. But whatever it was, I think both of those guys were really focused and we were really good one through nine today.” 

What he thought about how Zander Sechrist pitched…

“You know, a couple times with two strikes, trying to be too fine or trying to strike a guy out. You know, Baylor is like us. They were taking really good swings, too. It’s the last day, you don’t want to leave anything on the table and he left a couple pitches, that were not only over the middle of the plate, but a couple of them were bleeding back into righties and these guys aren’t going to miss. I mean they took really good swings off of Nate Snead and that’s probably as good as Snead’s pitched. He can throw the thing up to 100, but that’s as good as he’s pitched and they put good swings on him. He was just really, really good and we made a couple of plays behind him as well.”

On what went well for him at the plate…

“The scouting report we had before the game – like always – hunting heater and trying to sit back on the off-speed. Just get to their bullpen as fast as we could.”

On what he saw from Kavares Tears and his home run….

“I think it was huge. He had a pretty rough day on Friday and for him to hit a homer back side, I think that’s pretty cool in any setting. It definitely got us going and got the juices flowing for us. Good things happened after that.”

On how exciting a player Kavares Tears is…

“Man, he’s so exciting. I think he has some of the most raw power, speed and athleticism on this team. When he is hot, he is hard to stop. It was really good to see him go out here and perform tonight.”

On bouncing back offensively from Saturday to Sunday…

“That’s the type pf team we are. We are going to compete day in and day out. Last night, we faced some good arms and they found holes and we didn’t. That’s part of the game. Today, we were going into it knowing we are obviously a good team and we are going to fight hard and compete pitch by pitch.

On the power up and down the lineup…

“It’s super exciting. It really reminds me of my freshman year. I think going int this season, we are just trying to stack wins and be good guys – figure out ways to win each day.”

On playing shortstop every game this weekend…

“It feels good. OI was a shortstop in high school. Obviously, I had a few guys in front of me last year and freshman year, but it feels really good to be back out there. Feels like home.”

On what he saw from Billy Amick this weekend….

“Billy just being Billy. I call him ‘Billy Barrels.’ He’s going to do what he does best and that’s hit. I’m super excited to have him here – right in then middle of the order where we need him.”  

On what he saw from Nate Sneed…

“The first inning he was out there, I think he hit 99 [mph]. Juices were flowing and it’s your first outing of the season in this amazing park. You’re probably going to be a little rushed and sped up. For him to settle down for us and give us three or four innings, tat was huge tonight. And then Stamos coming in and closing the door. I’m super proud of both of them.”

On if Billy Amick is one of the more dangerous hitters he’s played with…

“Absolutely, but I think 1-9 we are all dangerous in a way. But yeah, he’s definitely dangerous.”

On his three-run home run in the second inning…

“I just went up there hunting first pitch fastball. I know earlier in the week I had a little problem pulling off a little bit so I just tried to make sure that my approach today was to just stay through the ball, kind of hunt left-center field.”

On what he was thinking rounding the bases…

“Just excitement. I guess you would say a little bit of relief to just get that first hit out of the way but also to take the lead early in the game to get the team going a little bit. It was a great pitcher they had but I knew that at some point the way our lineup was set up we were going to get to him so it was nice to get to him early.”

On bouncing back from Friday….

“It was pretty nice. I wasn’t really, I guess, stressing too much Friday. Opening day, a little jittery but I kind of settled in a little bit and realized it was the same game that I’ve played since I was a kid. It kind of all just came back to me and I was able to kind of slow my heart rate level a little bit.”

On third baseman Billy Amick’s big performance…

“I would say that it’s impressive but I’ve been watching him do that all fall so I guess you kind of expect nothing else from him. He’s a great player. I think he’ll play a long time. I’ve played baseball for a long time so I guess it’s just something that you’re used to seeing and it’s also a blessing to see players like that and how he goes about his work.”

On Nate Snead’s performance on the mound…

“He shut it down, honestly. They have a great lineup, a great team overall, but he came in there and did what they needed to do. We just kept telling him between innings to keep throwing strikes and that we were going to play the best defense behind him.”

On him having a 409 foot fly out in his third at-bat…

“You can’t really get too mad. It’s baseball. Put a good swing on it. I mean, that’s all I could really ask for. To put a good swing on the ball.”

On what he learned most about the team this weekend…

“I learned how resilient we are. I know we took a loss yesterday. Never gave up, never fought, never, for a second, thought we were out of the game until that last out was made and even then as soon as that game was over we were thinking about tomorrow and firing on all cylinders.”

On it being a strong defensive series for the Vols, whether it was surprising…

“Honestly, no. We all work pretty hard every day. Coaches out there don’t make anything easy on us. So I think it’s just a testament to all the hard work we put in in the fall and even when we got back from Christmas break early in the spring.”

On having tough competition opening weekend…

“I love it. I think if you’re a real competitor and like competing and playing, there’s nothing better you can ask for going out into the last inning.”