Everything Tony Vitello said after Tennessee's 11-1 win over Lipscomb

What Tennessee Baseball coach Tony Vitello said after the 11-1 win over Lipscomb Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium:

Tennessee pitchers Austin Breedlove and Michael Sharman receiving extended outings, how he thought they pitched

“Just need a win. And also, they were two guys that got opportunities they’ve been starving for on Saturday. Now, Sharm’s was only one hitter, but both those guys threw the ball pretty well, and we’re going to need them, so we didn’t want to extend them too far, but also, the way they were throwing the baseball didn’t make a lot of sense to take them out, other than you’d like to use other guys, but it was more more important for us to win. I mean, I think there’s a sense of urgency based off last weekend, but also just a sense of urgency as we get closer to May. That’s when you want to know who your best guys are and where guys need to go. 

“And to be honest with you, I hate to keep harping on it, but just some of those guys with games getting cut short, we just haven’t had those two guys in particular get a fair amount of looks when, really you guys came to the scrimmages. Those two guys were really good for us all fall, and then in January and February, so it was good. The way they threw the ball would have been tough to take it out of their hand. That’s just what you got. You know, you don’t get to say whether you’re out there or not if you’re a pitcher, so that’s how to handle it. 

What he liked about Tennessee’s approach after losing the weekend series to Kentucky

“Just the vibe of determination and focus, but also no one was stressing. So it was a good combination of everything that the day started in here with and then out on the field. And, you know, we got three runs. You don’t always get runs. I mean, people walk (Andrew) Fischer a lot, so maybe he doesn’t get a strike, and maybe we don’t score, and it doesn’t look like that to you guys. But that was the vibe. 

“And to be frank — what I just told John (Wilkerson) too — Saturday we got it rammed on us pretty good. But Sunday, the guys, it was about as good as you would want it in pregame. And if you remember, in the first inning, we have a 1-2-3 inning on defense. We have, like, four really good at-bats, just nothing to show for it in the first inning. But things went awry, and baseball, it’s so important to not be on a rollercoaster when things don’t go well, just to kind of keep your approach that works. 

How good it was to get Tennessee middle infielder Gavin Kilen back defensively

“Great, just because it opens up that spot that, quite frankly, Levi (Clark) and (Blake) Grimmer need to take control of, take ownership of. They’re both physical enough to look like an upperclassman or a junior, and by now, again, you’d like to sprinkle in more reps to both those guys, but Levi, especially. Grimmer, getting there. They’ve seen it. I mean, especially last year, Grimmer from the dugout, it’s not the same, but he’s seen it. 

“So it makes us better defensively, provides a little more leadership on the field. It’s probably easier for Gavin to be in a rhythm of the game that he’s used to, even though he always gives you good at-bats, but I think it gives our offense the best chance to have nine guys out there that can be productive.”

Why Tennessee went with Dean Curley at third base and Dalton Bargo in left field with Kilen back

“It’s a good question because Bargo is really good over there, but I think it comes down to, for today, what we want to do is give Ariel action at shortstop and continue to get him at bats. And you know, all he’s done is do what we ask, whether it’s moving the runner or take pitches in certain counts or be aggressive in certain situations. And so offensively he’s held his own. I know he likes the game, he likes being out there, and he’s competitive, so he’s salty if it’s not a double or a home run for himself, but it was more about Ariel. So I think it just depends on what combination we want to go with, who goes where. But at this point, I don’t hear any of those guys making an excuse out of, well, I haven’t got to spend 20 days in a row at this one spot. And that’s the way it should be. You should feel comfortable now that you got all those reps. So that’s kind of what I think we have as an advantage for our program.”

What goes into a team being good on the road

“First of all, I think you have to want to do it first of all. It’s kind of like if you get the bunt signal, the first step one is wanting to do it and not fighting it. And your dad throwing a Gatorade bottle at the dugout because he’s upset and things like that. So I was just telling John (Wilkerson) too, I think this group looks forward to it. I don’t know if it’s because they like being on the road together, or they think they have confidence, whatever. But I don’t know how to coach that, to be honest with you. But each year, especially since we’ve been getting big crowds here, you’re hoping and wishing that it’s a team that you know kind of has a little bit of like for going on the road, and I think this group has it. So having said that, you’re going into a place that’s as difficult to win as anywhere in the country. And I don’t know a ton about them, but I know they have success in high school recruiting and a lot of portal recruiting, so there will be talent on the field.”

On what he knows about LSU

“Same thing. A lot of those kids have had success at other schools, especially the guys on their infield, but Milan’s high school guy, and he had success against us last year. So a lot of guys that have proven they have the ability on the field, and guys who have a history of success. Their pitching staff, there’s some new faces there, so we’ll get familiar with that. Coach Johnson’s got his style of baseball. So you got kind of a few stereotypes  you could point out about each program. And obviously they’re well coached. They’ve had success. They’ve got their style they roll with. There’s a certain environment when you go down there. When the bus pulls up, you can smell that there’s pretty good cooking going on in the parking lot but you don’t get to eat any of it. So I don’t know exactly what this team looks like, but you kind of got a general idea of what’s going on. And when the game starts, especially this time of year, I think everybody’s kind of got equal information, scouting report stuff. It’s more about who executes and who plays better on that given day.”

How important midweek games can be to reset before a weekend series

“Oh, I mean, it’s nice. There’s like some Listerine out there today. Get that bad taste out of your mouth from the weekend. Guys need reps. I think Levi’s capable doing anything, but you kind of need to get in there. And it can’t be your first at-bat in a month and you feel incredibly comfortable. But I think it’s got a lot of value on the pitching side of things, because you can get some of those guys reps as well. So, yeah, hard to put into words, because soon as that game’s over on Sunday, it’s kind of like being back in the subdivision. You get your butt kicked, you’d like to play 30 seconds later, like, let’s run it back.”

If he feels this Tennessee team is at the point where it is player led or getting to that point

“I do. I know they had some conversations yesterday. I wasn’t invited to those conversations. So I don’t think there was any kind of player-only meeting. I think they just talked before they lifted and tried to get on the same page with some things. And guys need to feel like they can voice their opinion no matter who they are, because again, this deep end of the year, Grimmer and Levi, I’ll use an example, they’re not freshmen anymore. The school year is about over. So however you want to phrase it, I think those guys, not just those two, but other other guys, need to feel like they’ve got a stake in this thing and they should take responsibility for what they’re doing. But they should also speak out if they see something else with the group as a whole. But that funnels up to the guys that are the true leaders of the team, if going to throw on a captain’s jersey for guys like Ensley and I can name a whole bunch of others. So they need to take responsibility for what’s about to happen. You get towards the end of the year and you back off the reps a little bit in practice and you let those guys run wild.”