What Tony Vitello said of No. 1 overall seed, Knoxville Regional

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello joined the NCAA Baseball Selection Show shortly after the Field of 64 was announced to discuss his team’s No. 1 overall seed and the Knoxville Regional draw.  

The four-team Knoxville Regional consists of the Volunteers along with 2-seed Southern Miss, 3-seed Indiana and 4-seed Northern Kentucky. Tennessee’s first game of the weekend will come on Friday against Northern Kentucky, the No. 4 seed. The contest will be played at 7 o’clock eastern time and be televised on the SEC Network.

The Knoxville Regional winner will advance on to play the winner of the Greenville Regional, hosted by the 16th-overall seed, Eastern Carolina. If Tennessee wins its regional this weekend, it would host Supers in Knoxville as well.

Tony Vitello Selection Show Transcript

“Well, it’s hard to not just think about yesterday. I’m glad it was a clean game and it was as competitive of a game as you can imagine. So, that’s kind of what’s been on my mind all day. But if you look back to, really, August when it started going further back than you even asked, the group has had good vibes up at the field every day. And that’s a good start. And that means whether you win or lose, it’s going to be fun to come to work every day. And you can probably improve too because you got guys that are willing to listen and willing to work together.”

Q: Hey Tony, you guys are on this incredible four-year run as a program and one of the names that’s been prominent most of the time is your right-hander, Drew Beam. What has he meant to your program?

“A ton and has really provided stability. Even as a freshman, had characteristics that I think even made some guys uncomfortable. He was kind of unique as a freshman in how mature he was and how he went about his business – and also how he pitched. And then from there, he’s progressed. No one real big jump, not that he needed one, but consistent improvement, which is a parallel of what we want our entire program to do. And then the leadership category, not just for him, but guys like Blake Burke and CMO [Christian Moore] and [Hunter] Ensley.

There’s this cool lineage we have now, kind of the big brother relationship with the older guys, with the younger guys. And then those younger guys become the older guys and it’s starting to carry on a little bit, which makes our job easier.”

Q: Let’s talk about your offense for a minute. You lead the country at home runs this year. Christian Moore and Blake Burke have been around obviously, but they haven’t been in this – now they’re hitting one and two in that lineup. How have they grown? I mean Christian Moore had a about 441 feet [home run] in were in Hoover, but how would you characterize how those guys have changed since they’ve been there?

“I think before something happens, something happens and that’s something was last year. They had to go through a year of kind of being the main event and shouldering a lot of the weight, whether they wanted to or not. Whereas freshman year, they were kind of icing on the cake and they were kind of understudies the guys like Trey Lipscomb. And then last year, it’s kind of like, you know, Sonic has that good ice and their drinks kind of like – you just kind of want a couple of those cubes, but the whole thing gets in your face, you know?

It was a good learning experience and I think both progressed throughout that year and then picked up where they left off this year. We’ve been benefactors, like I said, as coaches.”

Q: You mentioned last year and you’ve been around now a handful of seasons. What’s going to be the difference and what have you seen in this team that could prove to be the difference?

“Kind of that stability and consistency you talked about with Drew [Beam]. A lot of other guys have it too and you can come up with cliches if you want, but you know, really the guys are going to be the ones this time of year that dictate your vibe at the park. Like I said, that stability, consistency, and really maturity, is what – I kind of put it under that umbrella – is the strength of the club. They’re going to need it. We got a team that beat Wright State two out of three. We’ve got a ton of respect for Wright State’s program and the team we play on Friday night also beat Missouri, an SEC team, on their home field – if I’m not mistaken. [He’s not]

So, they’ll need the maturity come Friday and then we will worry about what’s going to take place on Saturday when it comes.”