Tennessee baseball head coach Tony Vitello met with the media following the Vols’ 5-2 win over Oklahoma State Friday in Houston. Vitello shared his thoughts on Liam Doyle’s start, Gavin Kilen’s two-homer day, Dylan Loy’s crucial bullpen outing and more.
For a recap of Tennessee’s Friday win, click here.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball vs. Oklahoma State LIVE Thread
You can watch Vitello’s press conference here.
The transcript of Vitello’s entire post-game press conference is below.
Tony Vitello Transcript
On the dominant pitching in the win:
“Yeah. I mean I don’t want to say I expect them to be perfect every time, but they were really good. We threw three future big leaguers, in my opinion, at those guys and they did a great job. They kept the game where it was. Now part of that is their pitching did well too, and they made some defensive plays. Our guys did hit a few balls hard where we didn’t get an outcome that we wanted, but I think now that I have a little time to decompress and think about the game, I think the fans that were here got their money’s worth because of how good our pitching was. But our pitching was tested to the max. I think to the point where we almost… well, we did run out of baseballs for the game, used baseballs, because of how competitive the at-bats were on both sides.”
On what makes Dylan Loy a good bridge guy:
“We’re just glad he is back in the mix. We were kind of being overly cautious with him. Because of that, now he’s in the mix. There’s no holding him back or anything like that. He got ready real fast. He always competes the same way. He’s got a lot of different strengths, and now, like [Nate] Snead, Marcus [Phillips], some of these other guys, he can say, ‘I’ve got a lot of experience,’ based on what he did last year.”
On what is different about Liam Doyle this year compared to last year at Ole Miss:
“He’s more enjoyable to be around when he is wearing your uniform, but I saw the super intense when we saw him out at Coastal Carolina, and then faced him up close. He had it on for us. He wanted to stick it on us last year, and you could see that intensity. What you don’t see is, away from the action, he’s as relaxed and fun-loving as a guy you would want. And you wish you could kind of sprinkle that formula on all your players. There is a delicate balance between competing but also being able to relax.
“We’re in Houston. Roger Clemens, from what I hear, he could be in Ray Lewis-middle linebacker-mode all day long, but most of these kids are not capable of that. So, Liam’s got a good fun balance that works for him. But that word ‘fun,’ he makes it really fun to be around him. And then of course when he’s competing, he’s as good as it gets as far as sitting in the dugout and having that guy throwing the ball for you.”
On what’s been able to make this group mesh so quickly:
“I don’t know because last year made sense. We had a group that was around each other for a long time, and then Billy Amick was – it was like he was already one of the guys, and guys like Blake Burke took him in real quick. So, it was kind of by osmosis. This is different. You almost have three different baskets: the returning guys, [Hunter] Ensley, [Nate] Snead, et cetera, we don’t usually do that much JUCO, portal we haven’t gone crazy with, but then there is a bigger group with that, kind of the older guys, and then the freshmen. It’s one of our first classes where we were able to really have the success we wanted recruiting. You have those three baskets, and they’ve been low maintenance. So, it’s up to them to realize that it’s pretty good right now, but it’s going to need to get better as the season goes on. But for now, they’ve kind of done it. We haven’t done a trust fall or anything like that. I think it’s just a bunch of guys that have a similar goal, and they all seem to be respecting the fact that, ‘Hey, the guy that I might come out of the game for, or the guy that I’m getting the nod over has got a lot of talent, too. So I need to respect that.’
On if he expected Gavin Kilen to add this much power to his game:
“I think watching him on video, and then when he was up close and personal in BP (batting practice), I wouldn’t call it power because, I mentioned [Blake] Burke earlier, sometimes he would give that big ‘ole swing, and it was long and loose and the ball would get launched, I think Gavin’s is a real fundamental swing that’s been trained in the cage. So, he’s in a good position to strike the ball as well as he can. And he’s strong enough, but again, I think it’s more of the ‘precision over power’ if you want. And again, I’m not calling the guy strong. He went to the right side and the left side today, but for me, he’s got the ability to drive the ball. Call that power if you want, but I think it’s coming from just a really fundamental swing, and then a kid that likes to compete, too. He’s got a different edge to him than maybe some of the other guys we’ve had in the last few years. It’s his own unique brand, but make no bones about it, he’s got an edge to him. Something about Wisconsin, man, those kids are tough.”
On Manny Marin hitting his first home run in this environment:
“We already knew he likes this environment, and the other coaches that know him even better than I do tip you off. He wants this. And I think that’s one of his strengths. He’d rather… call it the lights being brighter or a bigger stage or the competition, again, that was a pretty dang good effort by Oklahoma State to not get a win today, so I think he likes that stuff. That’s a strength, and it’s up to him, because he is young, to figure out how to utilize that strength as best as possible. But he also has a high level of skill. We’re very fortunate to have him and some other guys, and some didn’t even get in the game today, to make it to campus. That was a battle we were not winning our first three or four years here for guys to say no to the draft. Blade Tidwell was kind of the first, and then [Jordan] Beck and [Drew] Gilbert were after, and now we’ve been fortunate enough that guys like Manny have come here first.”
On what he saw from Nate Snead in his first save opportunity:
“He’s got a lot of fire to him, so I think it’s important to not let that fire burn too bright. Sometimes when you’re coming out for one inning, maybe you could get out of control or you could think of other negative ways. But, he was on point. He got four outs, and, again, I’m not a scout, but if I’m sitting back there, he did it in impressive fashion. Track man, whatever the heck. His stuff was really good, but the usage or execution of the stuff was great. And then when you’re pitching late in those innings, if you don’t get a call, because again, he’s got a fiery temper, and earlier in his stages with us, something kind of went off the rails a little bit. Sometimes it would take him a few pitches to get back on, and [when] we don’t make a play behind him [today], no big deal. He got right back to work.”
