Tennessee baseball knocked off Illinois 6-3 on Friday night to earn a series opening victory in its final series before SEC play.
The Vols offensive exploded for four runs in the first two innings and withheld a Fighting Illini late inning rally to earn the win.
Following the victory, Tennessee coach Tony Vitello discussed AJ Causey’s strong start, Dylan Dreiling’s improvement and much more.
More From RTI: Strong Pitching Propels Tennessee To Series Opening Win Over Illinois
On what he saw from AJ Causey
“He was great in a few moments of adversity. It’s not easy to stand up there, obviously it affects what the ball is doing for a hitter when he hits it but when it’s that windy it’s not that easy to deal with. They took some good swings. They also battled a couple times. We did make some good plays defensively but there was also a play or two we didn’t make behind him. A couple moments where he wants to celebrate or his teammates want to celebrate getting a guy out and it doesn’t happen so you have to get right back to work. I think just kind of those blips on the radar screen of adversity were huge but there weren’t that many of them. Just blips sprinkled in amongst some really good pitching.”
On Causey potentially staying as a weekend starter
“I think the game will kind of dictate or give you the information of who you are as an individual and as a team and I think he already knew, and we did too, that he is fully capable of being a starter. It’s going to be a matter of what’s best for the team and sometimes stuff happens where a guy is sore or you use a guy in a certain situation or Thursday games— they start mixing those in. That’s when I think we first started (Garrett) Crochet one year, however it worked out. There will be different things that can happen but if we’re going to have the type of season we want to have, he’s going to need to start for us but also be willing to come in and get some guys out in a different situation as well.”
On if they value the Saturday starter spot more than some schools
“We’ve argued up in the office before and it is important. It’s in the middle of the weekend and the one game in front of you is the most important one but I think what you need is you’d like to have a guy that’s a solid starter on that day two deal where you know you can log some innings. It’s not a guy whose pitch count is going to jump up there real quick like some guys can. I’ve coached various guys and no one pops into mind immediately but some guy’s pitch count can jump real quick on you. But fortunately with Causey and Beam now, Causey is more of a ground ball guy and Beam has certainly done his thing for us. You’d like to think you know what you’re looking at with innings you have to cover out of the bullpen.”
On what a Friday starter ideally looks like
“A big leaguer. *Laughs* There’s been outliers but I think a Friday starter if you have a blueprint is someone that’s physical enough to withstand the grind of the entire season and he has quarterback type presence like Beam does and then you’d like a guy that has three pitches for a strike. And in our league you have to have big stuff. That doesn’t mean it has to be loud on the radar gun big stuff but you have to have something unique that you can throw at guys where it’s not an easy, repetitive look to pick up because there’s so much scouting info now and these hitters are obviously talented and strong.”
On Andrew Behnke
“I think all the days leading up to this one. He’s a hard worker, man. He’s in really good shape. He kind of had to fight for everything he’s gotten since he’s been here. We recruited him and wanted him to be here, but he hasn’ been handed anything. He was a guy last year, if you look back, I don’t know what his first appearance was, but he was one of those guys in the office, not disrespectfully, but confidently, sitting there saying ‘I want to pitch, and I can pitch.’ And again, the information we were getting with each time he got on the mound was that there’s this consistent improvement, and that certainly has carried on this year as well. So it is kind of fun to see the evolution of him as a pitcher. He has a great personality but it took us about a whole semester to figure out that he had one, because he does everything kind of quietly. I guess he is our sneak attack guy.”
On the resiliency of the team
“I think so. You have to have the ability to back it up, so fortunately we are surrounded by some guys that are highly skilled, but if something goes wrong, it’s either motivation or it’s a detriment to your body language, your thought process, the scoreboard, everything else. You do it enough times, and our guys have now collected a handful of them, you do it enough times it almost kind of becomes an automatic response. Kind of like, ‘This didn’t go well. Back out there.’ I know great defenses in football, it’s like a turnover on offense is almost a good thing. We get to be back out there and show what we can do and get another stop under, not just regular circumstances but adverse ones. So, hopefully those reps will keep piling up, but I really do think it kind of plays into the mindset thing. And we’re blessed with some leaders that I think know what works and what doesn’t. And they’ve veered in that direction of what works as of late.”
On what they stressed to Cal at the plate in the offseason
“I think there were just numerous talks, I don’t think there was any one talk. Just numerous talks about getting better and certain situations, how to attack, and then in here, bunch of different swings and he had a much better fall. I think part of it is just knowing what it all looks like, because he played at a great junior college and played at a high level and had success, but this is a little bit different. So, just knowing the landscape is the big thing, and then raising the standards a little bit in certain situations. It’s been a whole body of work, and I think that is still in progress, too. But the more he consistently does that, the more he shows guys who – I’m not doing their job for them – but it’d be a pretty good one to have around your pitchers, especially if he shows that he is swinging the bat better like he is right now.”
On differences seen in Dylan Dreiling from last year to this year
“More comfortable. He came in after the summer period. These freshmen now, I know in football they come in a semester early now, our guys get to come in the summer. They get to know Q [Quentin Eberhadt] and their eyes are opened pretty wide. When that happens, they get to know campus when Dylan [Dreiling] is playing for his family in a college league up there in Kansas – which is great for him. That’s great baseball, but I think he missed out on maybe getting settled in and comfortable here. Now, it’s totally different. He knows the coaching staff, his teammates and himself. Again, yet another guy that’s benefiting by knowing what the landscape looks like in Division I baseball and in our league. He has always had kind of the same swing with explosiveness. I would say maybe the more direct answer or immediate answer would be his physicality. He’s really gotten strong to the point where Q would maybe say it under his breath but grabbed us a few times in the fall and said that guy is getting pretty strong, and you can see it.”
On the top of the lineup coming together
“I think there’s always going to be availability to sneak in there. As much as you may think the door is closed as a pitcher or a hitter – and this could be in any program – it’s open if you keep working and you trust the process. That’s a cliché for a reason. But if you start complaining, get down or change things drastically or try and be Superman when you’re out there. If you just keep drilling like [Andrew] Behnke has, it will go in your favor. For some guys, it happens like [snaps fingers] real quick and others it’s a little more of a process. There’s available there and there’s some guys too that need to realize the coaches – right or wrong – I don’t know what our group ACT would be. I know what my minor contribution would be, but we got a little thing we are looking for. We are going off that more than the results. So, if you are constantly hitting it off the end of the bat, it kind of drives us crazy. Blake Burke probably got cheated on some at-bats his freshman year, but he was just running at the ball too quick. We don’t like seeing that and he finally camped down a little bit and started launching some balls as a freshman in a talented lineup. We are just kind of going off what makes us feel good….If Zakai [Zeigler] is guarding a guy defensively, you feel comfortable. So, that’s what we are looking for out of guys and I think there’s always going to be some variance in there. But we have started to figure out who is in that top four or five.”
