Everything Tony Vitello said following a doubleheader-split with South Carolina

Tennessee capped the 2023 regular season with a doubleheader-split Saturday afternoon at South Carolina, dropping game one 6-1 before running away with game two, 12-1. The Vols cinched their first series-win on the road this season and have locked up the seventh seed in the upcoming Southeastern Conference Tournament.

What did skipper Tony Vitello have to say following the eventful day? A written transcript is provided below.

On responding for game one to two…

“I think just all the places we’ve been, physically and mentally. It’s been about everywhere. The one box we haven’t checked was to win two out of three on the road, whether it be in Arizona or a conference game. We did that. But I think we did it because of all the things that preceded it, it allowed the guys to put themselves in a position to kind of reset. It’s a grudge match and when Burnsy [Chase Burns] coming out of the bullpen for us the last few times, it’s electrified our crowd when we are at home but also out dugout. Our guys are in that game and it’s a back-and-forth deal. It’s very easy to be dejected and disappointed, which I think they were, but after a while the guys started to loosen up and just talk about what they had in front of them. All of those things combined I think was a good formula.”

On the message to the team in the postgame huddle between the doubleheader…

“Just kind of the same thing. Be where you need to be. What you have right in front of you is an opportunity to win a road series. There’s a couple of places we traveled to this year where we would have killed to be in that position, but we came away with not a whole lot. The two trips in SEC play – and even in Arizona – where I thought we were ourselves at least at that point in the season, we didn’t really have a good opportunity to do so. It was just about being where you need to be and it’s very easy to be in the moment of being overemotional about a loss or a mistake. All they did was focus on what was in front of them. Kind of like showing up off the bus after sitting in the hotel for a while. They just kind of had that vibe that they were ready to play ball whenever the umpires said so.”

On Drew Beam working through some early jams…

“It allowed for a flow of the game. It wasn’t like a guy was throwing a no-hitter and was just breezing through guys, but he was reminiscent of what he did a lot last year and it was certainly a key to the game. Every time the guys came into the dugout, they were jazzed up about working out of a jam or if it was a quick inning. He did have a couple of those. You saw the determination on the kid’s face after last week. Whatever it was – he wasn’t going to let it happen again.”

On why he chose Drew Beam to start game three…

“We were looking at what do we have to do over the course of the weekend and having both games combined today and having them be seven inning games probably complicated things too much. But really, if you look at it, I think all three guys could have thrown complete games. I don’t know if we win all three, but they did a good job and maybe we over-complicate things because it is two sevens and that changes things a little bit. Then, of course, we have a tournament waiting for us and then another tournament after that if you want to look at (Andrew) Lindsey’s deal. I got asked by a lot of people, ‘what, you didn’t want him to throw 10 more pitches?’ He’s got a bright future when he’s done with us, but hopefully we can get him the ball a few more times.”

On what made Chase Dollander so effective in game one and why he was pulled…..

“I think he just keeps getting better as he goes and that’s the one real positive. I have an unfortunate loss and the second game the win takes the bitterness out of that game, but heck if you want to say what if this happens, what if that happens, if you leave him out there he’s going pretty good. He’s probably going as good as he has all year long. A lineup that I think has as many home runs as we do, and he was grooving. Two seven inning games, do you kick yourself if you don’t use Sewell, Halvorsen, Burns, but at the end of the day it’s probably best that we just play ball and see what’s in front of us and if we have to go to those guys we will. I think we know we have those guys fresh and any time we want to use them they’ll be the guy but right now our starters are throwing the ball as well as they can.”

On the importance of having fresh arms heading into the SEC Tournament….

“It opens up more possibilities. We’re not going to throw guys until they tell us they’re ready but it opens up more possibilities and nothing really matters except for Tuesday’s game for our club. It also affects guys, you know, down the road. I don’t think our run in the [SEC] tournament last year had anything to do with not going as far as we wanted to [NCAA Tournament]. One thing it does require you to do is use a multitude of pitchers and have those guys throwing their best stuff. I think the way the season’s gone, we haven’t really gotten anybody past 100 pitches if you want to look at it or any crazy stuff. It’s a good group. They’re obviously well coached. I think he [Frank Anderson] is the best in the country for a reason. That group is ready to go. If our group plays defense behind them and have kind of relaxed at-bats like they did in game one and game three I think we’ll have a good chance. And they had relaxed at-bats in game two too, to be fair. [Jack] Mahoney, when he gets that look in his eye he’s pretty good.”

On where he thinks the team is heading into postseason play….

“I think if you compare it to last year, which we’ve said all along is not fair, if you kind of want to look at a different way to go about it we have here with this group a bunch of lessons learned and a lot of momentum. Maybe kind of coming together in the locker room in different ways and of course in the dugout and kind of marching forward. I think the question you have to have over your head is have we played our best ball yet? And I don’t think that’s necessarily the answer would be yes. So, kind of that momentum forward is key and obviously any win you get in the league puts you in a better position for whatever the NCAA decides to do.”