Everything Tony Vitello said following a regional title win over Charlotte

Tennessee skipper Tony Vitello, pitcher Drew Beam and infielder Christian Moore answered questions from the media following the Vols 9-2 win over Charlotte to win the Clemson Regional.

Below is a written transcript of the postgame press conference.

Tony Vitello opening statements…

“I think it bears repeating: An excellent job by the host team for a lot of different reasons. I am sure all the regionals are wild. This is the only one I am part of. That is how it is this time of year, so a lot of unexpected things. I think for our guys, their confidence has been growing as the year went on. I know they believed in themselves even though we were coming to a national seed’s site and a place that is always rowdy to play in no matter who the opponent is. Grateful to be around good players that make you look smart. More than anything, I am kind of enjoying the process. (ESPN’s Kyle Peterson) was mentioning it after the game on an ESPN interview, just the process of the team kind of increasing improving in areas as the year goes on. That is what it is all about.”

On what went so well with the braking ball…

Drew Beam: “Absolutely. Definitely the curveball was the main pitch that I had going today. That played well with the fastball, I feel like. we had a good game plan. Trusted what coach (Frank Anderson) had for us when we came into it. Just really went with what he had for us.”

On the pitching depth and facing those guys in practice…

Christian Moore: “It wasn’t fun. I will tell you that right now. But in the fall, these guys prepared us for what we are facing right now. Facing them in the fall, facing Beam, (Chase Dollander), (Chase) Burns, (Seth Halvorsen), you can go on and on. The list continues. They definitely prepared us for situations like this. Going in there with runners on base, you are probably going to get sliders sometimes. I have seen some of the best sliders just from our staff in the fall and before the season.”

On what went so well for Christian Moore…

Vitello: “I mentioned it last night, talking about Clemson’s win streak. You can achieve great things and you can have outlying statistics, but at the same time, we are playing a game of so many repetitions. The guy is too good of a player. You are going to get explosive moments. There will be some challenges, too. There will be some things in the middle as well. I just think it is a case of a really good player doing what he is capable of. To me, I am a believer in things start before they started. Last night, it was interesting watching the guys celebrate postgame and taking in a little bit of it. There was one guy that was more about today than they were last night. I am sure maybe there were one or two others. The one who stood out to me was the guy to the right of me. I think if you want to be good at something or have something good happen, you are going to need to put in something even if it just some thoughts mentally ahead of time for that to go that way.”

On Robert Woodard’s video game comment…

Christian Moore: “I think for me I wouldn’t say I had video game numbers but it was a good weekend. At the end of the day all I want to do now is win each and every day. Just survive and advance. I think I can say the same for every guy that’s out there. Whether that’s I go two-for-two with some home runs or zero-for-four with four Ks. Whatever I can do to help this team win. We’re in the postseason now. If you win you advance, if you lose you go home. So just keep winning. That’s kind of my mindset going into this weekend and the weekend we have next weekend.”

On his favorite swing of the weekend and his dad and uncle being here…

Christian Moore: “Best swing, honestly I’ll go with the double down the line last night. Only because I thought that was kind of like stay inside ball, inside fastball and it was kind of cool to keep my hands in and double down the line. We practice that also all the time. First base setting screen so it was cool to do it.”

“Having them here was just a surreal moment. My dad, he works hard. He’s finally retired so he kind of got to see me play my first college games cause last year when he came down he came at the beginning of the season and I think I got about two or three at-bats. It’s good to have him here and I’m so happy he got to come down and experience that with me.”

On having road success this weekend…

Tony Vitello: “It’s huge. To go back to Christian’s dad, I passed him on the way up here and he said he’s a better player than you so you might want to take away some of those positives sentiments but the positive sentiments for this crew are just figure different things out. Who can finish a game for us out of the bullpen? Who can do a variety of things. Who can get a bunt down for us? Our best guy (Ethan Payne) did it twice for us last night and so one of those things is what is the best version of our group on the road. To be honest with you, we don’t do anything to coach it but it’s been one of our strong points even starting with our first year once we got to Knoxville. For this group everything starting back in August when things were kind of awkward and it was like ‘where is this going?’ It’s truly been a cliche of a journey and I think it’s still moving forward and there’s still some things that can get figured out and if they don’t, as Christian mentioned, this time of year is find a way to get it done.”

On when he knew the offspeed stuff was going to be so sharp…

Drew Beam: “Felt really good in the bullpen. Obviously went out in the first inning and tried to mix in a few cutters, a few changeups and the curveball was probably the one that felt the best today. Still throughout the game mixed in some other pitches but it was the one that was feeling good and getting good results so I just kind of stuck with it that way.”

On what the Clemson game was like for him…

Drew Beam: “Last night, my main goal was just being a good teammate, hoping that we win and trying to give my vocal— what I can on the bench. Not really trying to think too much about the next day until the next day was here. Take it one day at a time and once the game was over just trying not to have that big game hangover. Just get to sleep and get my mind right. It was good that we won but I had to get to my next task.”

On making a third straight super regional after all of the early season struggles…

Tony Vitelllo: “I think once it starts it’s a series. It’s an SEC type series. I don’t mean to discredit any — I don’t even know who the options are as far as playing, but at this point, you’re going to play a really good team and it’s going to be really competitive. So when it starts, you’re just trying to win a series. 

“But if you’re talking about tonight when these guys go back to the hotel and tomorrow, a bus ride back, it needs to be enjoyed more because it was challenging. We’ve said that in team meetings. That when things are difficult and you have to really work for something, it makes it sweeter. And then I also think it prepares you a little bit better. That doesn’t mean if you could pick any one team, they’ve got an edge and the scoreboard is going to say 1-0 when it starts. But I do think because of some of the obstacles that these guys have had to climb over, go around, go through. It’s made them stronger and I think we’re still getting stronger.”

On the turnaround from last night’s 14-inning win over Clemson…

Christian Moore: “I think the rest was huge for us. When you play 14 innings of a back-and-forth game like that, you need a little time off to get your thoughts back, get your body right. So, the rest was definitely crucial, but we definitely wanted to play. You come here in on the road and knock out the host team, you want to go back out there and compete. I’d say a little bit of both. We needed the rest, but we were also ready to compete today at six.”

On how Tennessee was able to avoid a ‘big-game hangover…

Tony Vitello: “I don’t know. As coaches you don’t go to sleep because you’re kind of running things through your mind and trying to get ready for the next day. And I don’t want to admit it, but I guess as you get older, you kind of wake up not on the alarm clock, but when you’re used to waking up. So it’s a pretty short night for us, but I think these guys threw so much into it, you’re gassed out and they probably needed a little bit of a recovery. I was trying to have a thermostat out and see how these guys were in the cage and at the field. I think they were incredibly confident. We knew we were playing a dangerous opponent and there’s a lot of things at stake, but I thought it was pretty cool how even-keeled they were and how confident they were.”

Tony Vitello final remarks…

“I’d be remiss — if I was good at making opening statements I would have applauded the competition. It’s nice when you play faceless opponents, or maybe even sometimes it makes it fun if for some reason you don’t like each other. We know the Lipscomb guys well. They’re class acts and had a great season. And then of course with Cam Fisher and we had to get past the (Andre) Lindsey thing and Cameron Hansen fortunately didn’t pitch against us. And then Austin Knight, a guy that was incredible in the dugout for us and always had ability and is showing it off at Charlotte. It’s hard, but it’s nice to see those guys. I think Clemson put together a miraculous season that is going to keep going forward under the guy they got. I’m kind of jealous of him to be honest with you. This is where he started and to get to come back is a pretty cool thing and a very wise move to have Coach (Jack) Leggett around, too. These guys need to enjoy tonight because three class teams and three good teams, but we were able to win the four-team tournament.”