Tennessee baseball head coach Tony Vitello met with the media following the Vols’ 8-2 series-opening win over Kentucky Friday in Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Vitello shared his thoughts on Liam Doyle’s start, Tanner Franklin’s good relief outing, Ariel Antigua’s incredible defense and more.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Takes Series Opener Against Kentucky
Watch Vitello’s entire post-game press conference below.
“It was good,” Vitello said when asked if he enjoyed the ‘clean nature’ of the game. “I mean, there were parts of it that went a little rocky at times, but that’s the nature of the game. And yeah, I think what made it clean was the way that Tanner Franklin came and threw the ball after Liam. I mean, you could have ran Liam back out there for sure. I mean, the guy’s been great for us. We don’t wanna run him into the ground, but you want to win the game too. And the offense showed that they’re capable over there. They’re capable in a bunch of different ways. But I think that was a big thing there where a guy doesn’t get credit for a save or whatever, but he probably threw the ball as well as he has all year. And I know Houston (vs. Oklahoma State) was really good, but that was a key component there.
“And then Ariel did his thing at shortstop to help him out. Those two guys must be better friends than I even realized. And (a) cool part of the night is Ariel coming to the plate and the crowd going nuts for him after he made the first play. And then they were equally excited about the second two plays. And it’s kind of, you know I’m from St. Louis, cheer for the Cubs because of my dad. But St. Louis is a very good baseball town. They know the game. They cheer for the game and I don’t know what went on in downtown tonight (at the Smokies), but we had a huge crowd, rowdy crowd. I bet they had another huge crowd. It’s a good sign for this city that it’s a true baseball community and to fill both those stadiums in one night and probably, like I said, have good crowds and good baseball. Says a lot about the direction of Knoxville and baseball.”
