Everything Tony Vitello, Hunter Enlsey and Kirby Connell said on a win over Evansville

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello, pitcher Kirby Connell and outfielder Hunter Ensley spoke to the media on Saturday evening following the program’s 11-6 win over Evansville in the Knoxville Super Regional.

Here’s a written transcript from the Friday evening Tennessee – Evansville postgame press conference.

Tony Vitello Opening Statement…

“Beautiful day at the ballpark with a great crowd and the sun shining. Obviously, the wind was changing all game long but what didn’t change was the competitiveness and exactly what we thought was going to happen happened. Their at bats were going to be tough, [Kenton] Deverman was going to give us a tough look. We thought with the game on the line, they would go to their guy, [Shane] Harris and our guys did an outstanding job in a bunch of situations just showing some toughness. Good slides around home plate battling with two strikes, making adjustments, and their guys did too. I mean, you got a guy going a hundred miles an hour into the wall and plenty of other situations that you could point out that made it probably a fun game to watch and a stressful game to be in the dugout.”

On the top-five in the order carrying the lineup…

Tony Vitello: “I guess what could be impressive is you start a new week – you’d like to call it a tournament, but it’s really just a series – but, you could go one of two ways. You could try and do too much or you could try and stay true to who you are. As you said, there’s been kind of a theme there all year long, so you might as well rock and roll with that thing and good leadership. Even if the stat sheet doesn’t show you what you’re looking for, what you’re talking about. I think good leadership started right out of the chute today. It was a good vibe.”

On then ability of the team to respond when Evansville score runs…

Tony Vitello: “It’s a difference. It’s a difference between this team and other ones that I’ve been able to be a part of or even sit there, watch my dad’s teams. Even teams that cheer on for, and I’m not talking about just being here with the teams I’ve been a part of, just in general – it’s hard to get punched in in the gut or the mouth. We brag on our league probably too much, not just to us, but all SEC folks like to do that. But it does kind of get you used to getting hit – gut, jaw, whatever you want to call it. Shocked. You got to be able to respond. My point is, I think this group, it’s a difference maker. How they remain calm or try and punch back in situations where the other team does some damage on us. It helps the coaching staff realize it’s a nine-inning game. These leaders kind of help the coaches kind of maintain an even keel mindset to an extent.”

On fighting back and finding success after falling behind in counts…

Hunter Ensley: “Yeah, I think early in the count, maybe trying to do a little too much. But getting later in the count, I think the only thing you can do [with] two strikes is get in there and compete. Really try and change my sight to middle of the field rather than left center, left field. So, I just think moving my sight over to the right side of the field helped there.”

On leaving only one runner on base all game and finding success with runners in scoring position and with two outs…

Tony Vitello: “It’s a tricky one because you could do everything you need to do. Kike CMOs [Christian Moore] first at-bat as an example. I mean he scolded that thing and there’s nothing to show for it. So, you could do everything you need to and be tough, but not get good results. But I do think it was a byproduct to just toughness. We’ve got some skill. We’ve got physicality throughout the lineup. They do too. They have toughness. But we, we kind of showed some unique situations I think where guys were willing to make adjustments and a lot of times this year you can see a guy swing out of control or way too big or get frustrated with one thing that happens in the middle of the at bat and take himself out of it. And you know, it was just kind of a word that stuck out to me. So, I shared it with the group out there.”

On what allowed them to be so good with situational hitting…

Tony Vitello: “It’s a tricky one because you could do everything you need to do, like CMo’s first at-bat is an example. I mean he scolded that thing and there’s nothing to show for it. So you could do everything you need to and be tough, but not get good results. But I do think it was a byproduct of just toughness. We’ve got some skill, we’ve got physicality throughout the lineup. They do too. They have toughness. But we kind of showed some unique situations I think where guys were willing to make adjustments and a lot of times this year you can see a guy swing out of control or way too big or get frustrated with one thing that happens in the middle of the at-bat and take himself out of it. It was just kind of a word that stuck out to me. So I shared it with the group out there.”

On why they put Ariel Antigua in for Christian Moore in the eighth inning…

Tony Vitello: “We had chaos in there because you’re trying to figure out who to pitch and all that. And then on the other side of the ball offensively. He had some soreness in his leg. I’ll go right next door and be able to speak more specific. But with the lead, Ariel’s been kind of our guy on defense. Sometimes we do it with Dean, sometimes we do it with Billy— based off where the lineup is at. And in this particular occasion we kind of killed two birds with one stone lead. Remove any doubt there with what was going on with soreness and do our thing with Ariel getting in the game and what do you know,  the first hitter hits the right to him.”

On if he expects Moore to play tomorrow…

Tony Vitello: “Yeah, for sure. A hundred percent.” 

On what they were seeing from Evansville reliever Shane Harris…

Tony Vitello: “I mean I think there’s kind of two different looks to the breaking ball. I’m not standing in there but he’s good at spinning it and it’s kind of why he’s been their guy, a good amount of saves and a lot of key appearances for him late in the game. But for a reliever, we’ve got a couple guys like this too, a huge amount of decisions. I think he was 8-3 going into the game, so he’s good for a reason and as you saw with (Jakob) Meyer came in after they got more ammo down there in that bullpen. But he is arguably their best piece. So to get anything against him, I think all teams that have played them would tip their cap to us and for us, as you saw it was needed. You can’t sit on what you got are at-bats need to be as competitive as theirs and we just have had to do it off a very, very good pitcher.”

On getting out of the third inning in an unconventional way, its importance…

Tony Vitello: “Yeah, it was. I mean, it’s wild. For those of you that just follow our team, it’s not like we got some kind of crazy cloud above us working some sort of voodoo. Baseball’s like that. Every time you come to the park you see something new and our guys are competing and I think what comes out of that are some unique plays where maybe a guy does something that gives us an advantage there. Like the back pick and then the stolen base situation. It’s kind of funny, I don’t know if it happened with them, but it happened in one of their games where you got a catcher’s interference over in the regional in Greenville. So there’s no doubt we were a benefactor. Everybody knows when you’re in a series it’s a race to two wins. But really when you’re in a game, it’s a race to 27 outs so you’ll take them any way you can get them.”

On what went well, didn’t go well for the pitching staff…

Kirby Connell: “It started with Stamos. Stamos went out and gave us a really good first inning, kind of threw the first punch for us and then went to Causey, then me to Combs. But talked about giving up some runs in the middle innings but offense helped a lot and then just letting the defense play behind us.”

On the home run from Hunter zensley and it being Tennessee’s 163rd on the year…

Hunter Ensley: “Well I think on a day like today when it was really pushing out to left field – also the wind was changing, it seemed like every inning – so the ball was really flying. I knew I put a good swing on it, and I knew it was gone off the bat. But I think seeing CMo (Christian Moore), [Blake] Burke, Billy [Amick] all homer today kind of bleeds into the rest of the team. Not that we’re going up there and trying to hit homers, but maybe our approach is maybe, you know, get it up in the air a little bit more and hopefully the wind will help us out a little bit.”

On if Evansville’s fight in the 9th inning changes anything about his perception of them…

Tony Vitello: “No. I mean, you know at the top of the convo here, just in the opening statement, we knew exactly what we’re getting. I kind of think the players did too. I’ve heard some underlying conversations – we don’t make them watch the game – but you know on a Monday, you want to put your feet up, and it was exciting. I watched more than I usually do [on] that Monday [with] those cutthroat games that they’re playing in. So, I think our guys watched the Evansville vs. East Carolina game and I think they were pretty good about it. They weren’t cheering for either team because they knew both teams were gonna be hell, and they saw it for themselves. So I think the one thing you’re combating is, and I kind of griped about this last week, we can have a conversation in the dugout as a whole team. They can talk in the locker room, but then you’re gonna have to combat what all you guys have to say and how the fans go back and forth. And in our league, no one does that more than those folks. So, you have to decide which of those things you want to pay attention to and which you don’t. But I think anybody that was wearing white today or wearing our uniform knew it was gonna be hell, and it’ll be like that tomorrow. And if it comes down to kind of like a lot of SEC series do where it’s 1-1 on Sunday, then it’ll be that too.”

On if he thought shuffling the middle of the order around would be as successful as it has been and why Hunter Ensley has been so successful in the 5-hole…

Tony Vitello: “I think prior to that there was already some momentum being built. Each year is very different, but things can play into your year from last year. Your expectations and what you want to do and things like that. So sometimes you see guys motivated for one reason or another start out slower or hotter or whatever it might be. And then as repetitions start to pile up, the truth, I guess, or the cream will rise to the top. I don’t know what the right phrase is, but again, when you get enough sample size, you’ll see what a guy is. And I think the numbers are fine. They’ve been climbing, but I’ve said it a million times – again usually when he is not around, so we don’t need this guy getting cocky – but he’s in the lineup because he fights. And everybody knows he’s got the ability to hit. If you’re in this game today – I’m going through those two lineups – you got the ability to hit. The results will come and go, but the more often or higher percentage of the time you compete your butt off, you just kind of shifted the percentages in your favor a little bit. And I think that’s what he does.”

On if he can think of a reason why they’re so good at responding to big innings…

Hunter Ensley: “I don’t think one certain thing. I just think offensively, our mentality is, any given inning, we can get you for three or four or five, even more than that. But I think offensively, it’s just keep the foot on the pedal and if we don’t get it done one inning, might get it done in the sixth, seventh, eighth, really don’t matter. I just think as good as our lineup is one through nine, we can get you with anybody at any different time. 

On the home run Billy Amick hit halfway of the light pole…

Hunter Ensley: “Yeah, I can remember one hit up in (batting practice) there, I hit one. I got Blade, too. I’ll send him this interview when we leave that way he knows I’m talking about him, but yeah, he (Amick) crushed it. But yeah, I’ve had a few up there, too. So I’m going to let him know that for sure.

On if the experience of the 2022 team losing to Notre Dame in super regionals is helping them approach this weekend…

Tony Vitello: “I think so. I think anytime you do something, you get something out of it and to simplify it for now, if you do well, you take confidence from it. If you don’t, you try and learn or see what’s different. So I think it can only help when you experience something one way or another. But I also think, like you mentioned two years ago in college sports now, is kind of a long time, so there’s different leaders in this team. There’s also a different way this group goes about it. And then, you know, on the radio it was funny, they pointed out there are a lot of similarities between Evansville and Notre Dame, the team we played there. But there’s also a huge amount of differences too. So this is a different script that’s being written, but I do think the fact we experienced it, whether we would’ve won it or lost it gives us a little bit of an edge and then so does last year. You know, having to do it on the road was obviously tough, but just those moments of, you can call it pressure if you want, but those moments of being in a situation like this I think only benefit you.

On if the experience of the 2022 team losing to Notre Dame in super regionals is helping them approach this weekend…

Kirby Connell: “Yeah, I think it helps. There’s a lot of guys from that ’22 group, but then you got the new personalities that have came in this year and last year. So a lot of those guys are, they watched it in ’22, but it’s mainly just us learning like Coach V said and having a different mentality going towards it.”

On how difficult it is to face the Evansville lineup from top to bottom…

Kirby Connell: “Yeah, one through nine, they’re pretty good. They got guys that can leave the yard at any time, but you know, it’s a lot of guys that are gonna go up there and compete. Threw a lot of pitches, threw almost everything I had, threw the kitchen sink at one dude and he ended up taking it for ball four. But for me it was just, you know, throw it over the white deal down there like Coach (Frank Anderson) says and you know, kind of let the defense play behind me.”