What Tony Vitello said ahead of the SEC Baseball Tournament

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello met with members of the media on Tuesday via zoom ahead of Tennessee’s start in the Southeastern Conference Tournament this week in Hoover, Ala. The following is a written transcript and video of the Vitello press conference.

The No. 8 seed Volunteers will take on No. 9 seed Alabama on Wednesday at 10:30 AM ET. The winner will challenge No. 1 seed Texas on Thursday at 4 PM ET.

On if he knows the pitching plan for Wednesday morning’s game against Alabama at the SEC Tournament…

“Just that Marcus (Phillips), (AJ) Russell, (Nate) Sneed, (Tanner) Franklin are all rested. (Dylan) Loy and (Brandon) Arvidson have been our two lefties we’ve leaned on the most. Those guys are, you know, as fresh as you’d think. I mean, Saturday was the last outing for both. Arvs coming off a good outing, and D-Loy has been one of our most reliable guys. And then (Brayden) Krenzel, you know, showed on Saturday that — well, heck, we basically had to take him out because of pitch count, not because how he’s throwing. 

“So all those guys will be available and we’ll kind of try and throw the kitchen sink at them. In what order? We hadn’t discussed. We haven’t been together. Part of us did one workout, part of us did another, and since then, the Alabama game has ended. So now that we know who we’re playing, we’ll just kind of pow wow together and try and decide what order ideally we’d go in.”

On the benefit to junior RHP Marcus Phillips coming out of the bullpen after starting all season long…

“Just that he’s done it before. He did it last year. Did it in big circumstances. Heck, as far as the regular season goes, he might have got the biggest out of the entire year last year, out of the bullpen. in Lexington, Kentucky, but odds are he’d be the starter for us, and then we would just go in that order. But I don’t think with him, or maybe some of our other guys in this tournament, we’re looking to win, that’ll be the pursuit that we’re on. But we’re also not looking to go crazy with pitch counts, in particular with the guys that are on short rest.”

If the new 16-team format at the SEC Tournament allows Tennessee to be more aggressive with its pitching at the beginning of the week…

“It could. In our particular circumstance, I don’t know that it will. And obviously, with it being single elimination. You got to just look to the day that’s in front of you. That’s cliche and other situations, and this one, it’s literal. So I think it could, but for our team in particular, I don’t see that being really a factor.”

On what’s different about freshman Levi Clark the last couple of weeks of SEC play, opposed to when he struggled during the first half…

“Just looks more comfortable. I think in SEC play, he probably felt as comfortable as always, because he’s super competitive. He’s got real confidence, and then he’s always hit his whole life, so he’s been in a bunch of competitive situations already. I think just scouting report stuff, pitcher’s stuff goes up, new circumstances. You know, there was a minor bit of struggle there, but it wasn’t anything drastic. Part of it too is, we’ve got other tools available. It’s frustrating you can’t use them all at once, but, you know, the quality of his at bats have been tremendous, even when he’s just drawing a walk, or even when he gets out. He’s a pain in the butt for the opposing pitcher.”

On the difference in preparation for the NCAA Tournament the last two years in Hoover (going one and done and then winning the tournament)…

“I think (in) this tournament everything affects everything. So this tournament is one where there’s a bunch of different styles and approaches people take to it. But like any set of circumstances that are intense, we talked about SEC play with Levi (Clark), being here in Hoover. Our first time here did not go well, and part of it was our guys were just out of sorts for four or five innings. And you gotta get accustomed to it. You got to kind of know what it looks like. And you don’t have to be the guy that played, you know, 10 different times in Hoover, at the Met, but Hunter Ensley has. It helps if you lean on him a little bit. So this week will affect next week in one way or another, and it’s up to you to turn anything really into a positive. But the other thing is, the more experienced you are, the more you would think you would have an advantage. But it’s playoff time, and there’s no guarantees. It’s definitely expect chaos time.”

On how the tournament being single elimination affects the whole week…

“I think it makes it a lot more intense. I don’t know how it’s going to affect the fan bases or anything else, or how the weather will affect it. Because there’s always lightning or rain delays here. It’s just part of the beast, but I think it’s just going to make everything a little bit more crucial. It’s sudden death right out of the chute, and normally for baseball, and it probably is a little better for baseball overall to have double elimination because of the nature of our game. But it’s got a little bit more of a March Madness feel to it. So I’ve been asked a bunch of different questions about— we talked about Friday and pitching plans and environment, and while this is very familiar to the coaching staff and some of our players, the new format is new, just that. It’s new to everybody. So it’ll be interesting what kind of reflecting we all do on the tournament as a whole. And then obviously the group that’s on here will reflect on on Tennessee baseball’s time here.”

On what they want to achieve besides winning games this week…

“That’s a good question. I think again, with we’ve talked before with the double elimination format, like last year, we did not play our best in the first game. We certainly competed, but we did check some boxes. And I don’t know that that’s necessarily a big deal now. I mean, if you had your pick, you’d like to get Tegan Kuhns and Brayden (Krenzel) and a couple other guys that are freshmen some time with their cleats in the dirt in what is called playoff baseball. So, that would probably require a few games, or at the minimum, two games. But for now, how single-elimination has affected us is we kind of just tried to prepare like tomorrow is the only game of the weekend. The only difference at all is, of course, Liam (Doyle) – the way we set up the pitching. He’s anxious to pitch here, but for that to work, we’re going to need to win. And so, he’s kind of set aside his routine separate from the rest of the team. But everybody else is, you know – put everything we got into tomorrow.”

On Marcus Phillips outing vs. Arkansas and his response after tough Vanderbilt series holding men on base…

“I saw a big improvement. Our team was playing better. So, if we’re winning or the defense is playing well behind him, we’re good around the bases. The catching is doing their part. It’s some, some of the parts, you know. So, it lifts him up a little bit as well, but he made progress. I think he’s now mature enough and tough enough and has real confidence that I don’t know that he had last year. You can do stuff like that, and he’ll respond. He’s been working at it, and just like you guys saw him progress from maybe a hitter to maybe a pitcher into all the way to being a starting pitcher in the league. There’s still other things that he’s in the middle of a progression with. And yeah, I’m like you guys and some of the other people. I wish it would happen quicker. It’s not an immediate thing, but there’s definitely been improvement. And it’s something, among other things, too, that he’s working on every week to get better at and I think there were signs of that shown as far as improvement goes.”

On the luxury of having a versatile guy like AJ Russell this time of the year…

“It is because, bridge innings have been hit or miss for us, to be blunt about it. And by that, I mean our starters have done a good job for us. By the nature of Liam (Doyle) strikeouts and some of Marcus’s (Phillips) games and then the age of the other guys that we’ve been pitching, sometimes in the fifth inning, it’s bullpen time. It’s been again, hit or miss, and part of it is who is available and who is not. And AJ could start. He could close. As you mentioned, he’s done a variety of things. For this team in particular, he got our only win of the weekend (at Arkansas) by being a very, very valuable. Call it bridge guy or middle relief, whatever you want to. So, yeah, Swiss Army knife of all sorts, which you always kind of want one or two of those guys on your pitching staff. And maybe we’ve picked one up now that he’s kind of got his cleats underneath them and has built up the pitch count a little.”