HATTIESBURG, Miss. — A hoarse voiced Tony Vitello sat down at a table in the Pete Taylor Park weight room to talk to the media after Tennessee punched its ticket to Omaha with a 5-0 victory in the Hattiesburg Super Regional in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
“8 a.m. recruiting flight,” Vitello led off. “Hopefully, that game was the recruiting.”
Vitello’s recruiting prowess is what got him the Tennessee job. His tireless recruiting efforts in Knoxville is why the Vols are returning to the College World Series for the second time in three seasons. After losing 10 players off Tennessee’s historic 2022 team to the MLB Draft, Vitello replenished his roster in the transfer portal.
The three transfer bats Vitello brought into the program— Maui Ahuna, Griffin Merritt and Zane Denton— drove in all five runs for Tennessee in its College World Series clinching win.
But while Tennessee baseball is plenty talented, they don’t get to Omaha without the best coaching job of Vitello’s brilliant six-year Tennessee tenure. It started in August when those transfers arrived in Knoxville.
“In August we weren’t a fun team to be around,” Vitello said Sunday night. “It was awkward. There was a lot of space between the players and the coaches, the players and the players and even the players and the mangers on a couple of occasions.
“Since then, we have been coming together.”
Vitello, whose competitiveness can get him in trouble, stayed calm when his team struggled early in the season. The fiery Italian didn’t hit the panic button or press. He knew his team didn’t deserve its consensus No. 2 preseason ranking but knew they could get there.
“We were not the No. 2 team in the country in February and March,” Vitello said early Tuesday morning. “But the comment was, we very well could be that team. … The whole idea was understand this group and kind of carve our own way out by being a team that consistently makes progress and figures things out. That’s what they’ve done and it’s been a challenge and halfway through the year they took ownership of the team, the players that is.”
Tennessee’s season was full of moments that wouldn’t be described as fun. Dropping the first two games of the season? Check. Missouri sweeping the Vols in the SEC opening series? Check. Tennessee returning home from getting swept in Arkansas to lose to Tennessee Tech? Check.
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Sure, there was some heated motivation and history lessons from strength coach Quentin Eberhardt — who works in lockstep with Vitello. But the 43-year old head coach stayed loose and his team never panicked.
“Just having him around the field and having him cutting it up with us, it makes it fun to play,” Drew Beam, game three’s winning pitcher, said of Vitello. “There is a reason we all play baseball. We had fun playing it when we were little. We just love to play it. Playing for a coach who loves it just as much as you do makes it that much more enjoyable.
Vitello didn’t panic but he didn’t sit on his hands either. He moved sophomore Chase Burns to the bullpen and Charlotte transfer Andrew Lindsey into the Friday night starter spot before the Arkansas series. Both became better for it.
Burns helped save Tennessee’s season in an electrifying relief outing in the Vols’ game one win against Vanderbilt. The sophomore did the same Monday night, striking out the first four Golden Eagles he faced including a pair of 100-plus mph fastballs that got Tennessee out of a seventh inning jam and effectively buried Southern Miss.
“That emotion he shows is reminiscent of what took place earlier in an SEC weekend (Vanderbilt) for us and it helped swing this whole season,” Vitello said. “It gave the guys a rallying point. It gave other teams something to fear at the end of the game and he did it again and it was pretty special. It lifted our guys and gave our guys confidence that we had ownership of the game.”
Vitello stuck with Kansas transfer Maui Ahuna in the leadoff spot despite the shortstop’s team-high 73 strikeouts. Ahuna worked six and nine-pitch walks to leadoff innings and hit a solo homer in another Monday.
The best team in Tennessee baseball history didn’t make the College World Series. The Tennessee team that was 5-10 in SEC play at the halfway point in conference play did. Those are the breaks of baseball, but it also highlights Vitello’s best coaching job in Knoxville. He kept things from crumbling when they could have and made the right moves to set his players up in the best spot to succeed.
Vitello isn’t ready to reflect on the season with what Tennessee hopes is plenty more baseball left to be played. But it’s clear this year and group is a special one to him.
“To be sitting on this stage advancing is very memorable,” Vitello said. “Tough to put into words.”
It’ll remain tough for Vitello to put into words on the recruiting trail Tuesday morning. The results will speak for themselves.
