Everything Tony Vitello said following Tennessee's win over Charlotte

Tennessee Vols skipper Tony Vitello answered questions following his team’s 8-1 win over Charlotte on Friday, beginning play in the Clemson Regional for NCAA postseason. The Vols now move on to square off with host Clemson on Saturday at 6 o’clock eastern time for a chance to clinch a spot in the regional championship.

Below is a written transcript from Tony Vitello and the players.

Tony Vitello opening remarks…..

“I don’t have anything in terms of opening remarks, but there’s 16 of these sites. I think I’m doing the math right. There are 16 regional sites that are different from one another, and everything has been really good. Obviously, you’re happier if you’re fortunate enough to win the first game – but everything leading up to it with the people has been outstanding. It’s been a good environment for the two games. I guess if I am going to say one thing about the game in particular that you might ask. It’s good symbolism that the guy sitting next to me – and I think you guys interviewed Austin Knight as well – about familiarity on both sides. You guys can ask about that in more detail, but it’s just baseball. It’s the time of year when you just play ball. I think both sides did that and fortunately the guy to my right [Linsey] was so good tonight and we came out of the gates on offense too to help him. But really, it revolved around his start. He made it a good day for the Vols.”

On what he knows about Clemson….

“I’m glad you mentioned his name [Clemson coach Erik Bakich] – he’s about as organized and thorough of a guy as they come. I think his team kind of mirrored that this year, if you had the chance to follow them. We are all wrapped up in – the nonconference games too, but our league play. We keep an eye on people and when you get the bracket, we look at all three teams. Lipscomb and Charlotte, maybe a little bit more familiar because of the guys. But when you look at them, they play organized and well-coached ball. They rarely make mistakes. Today, I know it was back and forth, but obviously there was some separation between the two clubs when we were hitting in the cages. We almost got hit with a ball.”

On if the group was less tense today than in Hoover…

“A lot of it is perception. As a coach, you’re always watching, you’re trying to make observations, and sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong. For some of the individuals, and maybe even for the group, I think some of that [tenseness] carried over even to the next couple of days. We won our last series of the year, and we were in that game (Texas A&M). I know it was a frustrating game, but by the end of the year, some frustrations can build. And that’s why it can be a benefit to get that breather that we got. I know I got asked about that in Hoover, ‘Why is that a benefit?’ Well, you want to be prepared going into any game, and our league, the ACC, some other teams with the opponents they play, it prepares you. So the preparation part of the season is over with. It was good to get everybody back to neutral. I think it took a couple of days even past Hoover to get back to neutral just mentally, for sure, and then physically. Now there’s been this build up of just getting ready to play baseball again. Kind of a new opening day, almost, today.”

On how big of an at-bat it was for Christian Moore in the first inning to battle and hit a two-run double…

“Yeah, it was big for us and big for him individually. Not quite to that degree, but there was an at-bat prior to that that was similar where he battled. I’ll choose to make it a parallel for something we kind of talk about with the whole team. Just compete. And he’d admit it. Sometimes you get caught up in trying to do too many things or get emotional about results. A day like today for all four teams, when you show up to the park, you don’t have time to worry about what your stats are or what could happen with this or that, or who is going to sit down and talk to you guys. You’re just trying to win. That dude, we’ve had some moments where we’d like to do some other things with Christian Moore, but that dude is as fun as any of them to be honest with you when we’re just trying to win.” 

On Andrew Lindsey’s start….

Tony Vitello: “It looked similar to the last outing. You all mentioned the starting pitching — and really the bullpen increasingly got a little better. Just kind of inching along, a little bit better. To kind of pick up where he left off is what I was thinking. If you look at their home run numbers, it is different numbers and right left and all that, but a similar feel to South Carolina’s lineup. It was good for him to not just get us as deep into the game as he did because we rode the pitch count pretty good, but also for him to have to grind out some tough situations like the first inning and there were a couple others tomorrow.”