After a drama filled 2023 season, Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello stated one definitive goal this offseason. He wanted to show up at Lindsey Nelson Stadium excited every day and to be with people that wanted to be at Tennessee.
“100% success,” Vitello said following Tennessee’s College World Series clinching win over Evansville.
Tennessee’s seventh year head coach talked a lot about what success means to him after his team clinched its third trip to the College World Series in four years. Achieving the goal he set out at the start of the offseason is one reason why this is a successful season to him.
Another reason that this season is a success to Vitello is that he gets to spend another Father’s Day with his dad in Omaha. That means that the team he feels so fondly about will also get to experience playing in the College World Series.
It won’t be the first time for a number of key players on Tennessee’s roster but it will be for Billy Amick, Nate Snead, Dean Curley and a number of other key Vols. Dalton Bargo is an Omaha native and his two home runs in Tennessee’s 12-1 College World Series clinching victory over Evansville helped send him home.
“It’s awesome. Omaha is great,” Vitello said. “You want to be able to check that box.”
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But for Vitello, the greater joy is that the season isn’t over yet. Not because Tennessee has another College World Series appearance or because they have a chance to win a National Championship. But because it means more time with the team that he’s enjoyed being around every day.
“The thing you don’t want to lose is another day with the guys, or another trip with the guys, or another bus trip, or jumping on a plane, or an hour delay where Zander (Sechrist) does something goofy,” Vitello said. “And so it’s the type of team, you don’t want to be robbed of that extra day, or extra moment, or extra hour with your guys.”
The 2024 Tennessee baseball team has another week or two to keep making memories. They head to Omaha better equipped to make a deep run than either the 2021 or 2023 team. The Vols ability to respond to adversity has been a “difference” between this team and past teams Vitello has been a part of.
Regardless of whether it’s another quick trip to Omaha or one that ends in a National Championship, Vitello’s feelings towards this team won’t change.
“But you can’t take away that teammate stuff that I mentioned earlier,” Vitello said. And regardless how things go from this point forward, that will go on for as long as we’re all alive.”
