Everything Tony Vitello said on a 7-5 midweek win over North Alabama

Tennessee baseball held on for a 7-5 midweek win over North Alabama on Tuesday from Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The following is a written transcript of the Tony Vitello postgame press conference.

Tennessee returns to action this weekend in Houston for the Astros Foundation College Classic at Daikin Park. The Vols will take on No. Oklahoma State on Friday (4:05 pm ET), Rice on Saturday (12:05 pm ET) and Arizona on Sunday (11:05 pm ET). All games will be streamed at Astros.com and on the Astros social media accounts.  

On AJ Russell pitching today and what’s next for him…

“I think the weather was a big proponent of everyone being on board with that. He and his family were ready to go. Kind of asked him Sunday, what’s the next step look like for you in the week’s schedule? Because I already knew he wanted to be out there. We just wanted him to verbalize it. And then two, we’re to the point where he is faced our hitters a few times, so it’s either face our hitters or face their hitters. So, we felt good about getting him out there and I was just glad he didn’t try and do too much and almost looked like he was actually being more methodical than I’ve ever seen him.

I don’t know if that’s the trend he wants to keep or that was him keeping himself under control. But to me, I was happy that the adrenaline – it was certainly there – but it wasn’t out of control. And I think the flip side of that is he did a really good job of all the throwing he did to come back, keeping himself kind of under control when he did face our guys. Because that was a part of your question too. I liked how good it looked because you knew again, when the adrenaline or the game competitiveness kicks in, what’s it going to be like?

And then favorite part of the whole day – because the whole day was kind of a mess to be honest with you with me traveling back here and just the game was a wild one – was him and [trainer Jeff Wood] Woody hugging. I don’t think some of our guys realize it until they leave when they go off into pro ball or maybe they go to a different program. The freshmen, when they first get here, it’s kind of like ‘who’s this guy that’s been around a long time’? You don’t understand how valuable that position is for a program and how much stress it takes away from me. The guy has been around 21 first rounders probably and been around it for so long. Those two guys hugging was pretty cool.”

On what his plans for AJ Russell are down the road and what his role could be…

“I think he’s more comfortable starting. I think at this point, we’re not going to have him pitch two times within a five-day, you know, Friday and then Tuesday wouldn’t even be realistic, I think. So, the next stop will be getting him out there maybe multiple innings. But we had talked about him getting a start like the fifth week of SEC play. But he cut out – just a good example for kids. I’m not – whatever – you can have fun and all that stuff. He wasn’t a big drinker or partier, but he cut out all that stuff and changed his diet completely. I’m just trying to express how psycho he got about coming back and he was determined to do it and he basically got to the point where we couldn’t slow him down. So again, it was either face our guys. So, it’ll probably be the same thing. His work and his character will lead him into forcing our hand maybe a little quicker than we want, but we’re also going to be pretty dang patient. The next time out isn’t going to be much more than he just did. It’ll probably be more along the lines of what he just did.”

On how tough it is to manage a guy like AJ Russell returning from significant injury…

“He is, and I don’t think we handled it as well as we could have last year. We got in a situation where there just could have been a lot of little things communicated better, and you can’t bulletproof anybody, that’s for sure, and also some things you just can’t stop. There’s certain kids now in high school, these arms are moving so fast or kids grow so fast. So all you can do is communicate and make sure both sides are on board. We’re working just as hard as the kid is, and then you get to a point where you want it to be obvious they need to get out there. So, I don’t know that that directly answers your question, but that was the step-by-step process that went on there. And there’s many versions of that that have gone on, too, with Tegan [Kuhns] being sick or [Dylan] Loy just getting a little tight one day and we’re like, ‘Hey, let’s give some other guys a chance and make sure that you are just as ready as he was today.”

On how Dylan Loy & Tegan Kuhns looked in their season debuts…

“Well, Dylan showed one of his biggest strengths is his composure. They had a situation there where they could have scored on him, and nobody wants that to happen, But, you kind of always feel good about how he can manage the game, at least his emotions. He’s always extremely competitive, he can field this position, you just feel comfortable for a lot of different reasons when he is out there, and just like any ballplayer, sometimes it doesn’t go perfect for him. 

“And then I just thought Tegan, he’s got that presence. I’ve mentioned it to you guys before. He’s got that presence that you hope freshmen have that is kind of that of an upperclassmen. And he’s always had stuff that is that of an upperclassmen, too. I don’t think we need to go crazy with either one of those two. I think they’re both fine. But the next time out will probably be a highly competitive situation for both guys because of those attributes they have.”

On what to expect lineup-wise in the Astros Foundation College Classic…

“I don’t think the team even knew what I was talking about or not, you could ask them, but you kind of plan out some of these games, and it rarely goes according to plan A, but sometimes you can get close, and today was just second guessing, and one-off this and one-off that. And then you don’t get to use a guy, and one guy’s out there too quickly, and then you leave a guy out there longer than you planned, and it didn’t go well. So, ultimately the players that are out there have to play and do their job, but we need to put them in a position to succeed, and [I] don’t think that my part of that responsibility was executed very well tonight at all. 

“But that fix fits under the big picture of, we got a puzzle to solve with what is the best version of this team. And a huge part of that is the locker room. I’m not even involved. They need to decide what their personality is, how good they think they can be and some other things as well. And then for the coaching staff, we need to figure out.. I mean, that’s a pretty big-time play Ariel [Antigua] made on that slow roller. So, how is he involved? What other guys move around? Plenty of position players could be included, too, but the pitching staff, we have to figure out what is what.”

On how comfortable the coaching staff is with Stone Lawless defensively…

“I think the biggest reason we put him out there today was because – I think Levi [Clark] is every bit as good defensively – Stone’s just a big communicator and a big talker. He’s [in his] second year, so we figured we’d roll with that because we wanted to get both those guys at-bats. But very comfortable with him at that spot. And him against a certain type of pitching we feel is the best matchup, too, but just trying to balance out the reps. We don’t have a definitive lineup for Houston. 

“We’ll focus on Friday, and we’ll do the same old thing we’ve been doing. Marcus [Phillips] will get the respect of the coaching staff or get the nod for Saturday, so he can prepare for it. But the rest is going to be, ‘How do we think we can win the first inning or two on Friday?’ And the rest of the weekend can wait.”

On the weekend coming up at the Astros Foundation College Classic…

“When I grew up, three very, very proud traditions. Oklahoma State when Gary Ward was there was arguably the best program in the country for multiple years. And then Frank [Anderson] took over there. There’s a lot of ingredients. It’s like Tennessee Athletics for Oklahoma State Baseball. There’s a lot of ingredients there that have lent themselves to success. I know they got some big arms and they’re very well coached by a pitching coach that Frank knows really well. The [Josh] Holliday family has been ingrained in that program too. So, that’s really all we should matter or worry about.

But since you brought it up, I mean, dude Lance Berkman. Rice was playing with Wayne Graham as their coach half the time on my television when I was younger or when I was in high school and I was hoping I could play college baseball. Arizona’s had about as much success too. So, you got three very strong tradition rich programs. But the best way to tackle a massive project like that is kind of like I said, one inning at a time.

We’ll try and win the first couple innings on Friday and that’ll really be the only script we have written out. And the rest will be – we will have to do our research and our homework and work hard to put together a good weekend, probably in front of a good fan base. Our folks like to travel when we do this stuff.”

On Alberto Osuna heading into Wednesday’s preliminary hearing….

“He’s always in high spirits. I know the guys want to do whatever they can. I don’t know that they’ll be allowed to be…That’s a pretty unique kid, pretty unique kid. So, I hope karma is on his side. I can tell you that. The rest, I honestly have no idea. So, I don’t mean to make any kind of political statement with that at all. I watched him play and the big homers and all that don’t really match up with the – he’s kind of a teddy bear, but also he’s got some fight to him and he’s a fun one to have around. You can ask the players about him and they can probably put it more into words.”