Tennessee’s 2021 season came to a quick end in Omaha as the Vols went 0-2 falling to Virginia and Texas. Since the season ended LSU has hired a coach not named Tony Vitello and Vitello appears on the verge of signing an extension in Knoxville.
Let’s take a look back at the extraordinary season while taking a look forward to what’s next for Tennessee baseball.
Three Observations
1 —Magical season ends with disappointment— Tennessee went to Omaha as the second highest seed in the field and had the third best Vegas odds to win the tournament.
So it was no doubt a disappointment for the Vols to go 0-2 on the sport’s biggest stage falling to one of the two non national seeds in the pool —Virginia— in the first game of the College World Series.
Against the Cavaliers, Tennessee played one of its worst games all season, hitting 0-of-8 with runners in-scoring position while playing uncharacteristic baseball in the 6-0 loss.
In game two against Texas, Tennessee fell 8-4 but played much better than the College World Series opening loss. While the Vols were uncompetitive down the stretch of the game, three plays completely changed the complexion of the game.
First, Blade Tidwell grooved a 3-2, two-out fastball down the middle in the bottom of the second inning and Texas’ Eric Kennedy erased the Vols early lead with a home run to right field.
Then with Tennessee threatening with the bases loaded and nobody out in the next half inning, Gilbert hit a hard ground ball right at the third baseman who was playing in and helped turn a 5-2-3 double play.
Then with the game tied in fourth inning Silas Ordain took a 1-2 pitch opposite field for a single. One run came home and a second—Mitchell Daly— scored all the way from first on a bang-bang play at the plate. Mitchell was ruled safe and the call was upheld by the replay booth despite clear evidence of Mitchell being out. Another run would come home on a Cam Williams single to give Texas a 7-4 lead and the Vols never recovered.
While the inability to fight back in the game like they had all season was a disappointment if one or two of those plays/calls go differently that is a different game.
The trip to Omaha was without a doubt a disappointment but it should do nothing to tarnish the 2021 Vols’ legacy and spectacular season. This team elevated Tennessee to heights it hadn’t reached in over a decade and has helped spark enough passion from Vol fans that Lindsey Nelson Stadium will finally see series renovation and Tony Vitello is likely to get a hefty raise.
2 —Arms that got Tennessee to CWS faltered— Behind the leadership of pitching coach Frank Anderson, Tennessee’s pitching staff overcame the early season loss of ace Jackson Leath to post the second best ERA in the SEC.
Sure, Tennessee’s pitching staff hadn’t been particularly deep all season but its six main arms were consistent all season— solid at their worst and really good at their best.
After a dominant performance in the larger Hoover Met at the SEC Tournament and a solid first two weekends of the NCAA Tournament I felt great about Tennessee’s pitching headed into the big T.D. Ameritrade Park and the spaced out College World Series.
There were a lot of areas to fault in Tennessee’s play in Omaha but the main arms that got the Vols to the College World Series struggled.
Chad Dallas wasn’t bad against Virginia, allowing one run through the first six innings before running into trouble in the seventh inning, allowing two runs before exiting as Sean Hunley would allow one of his inherited runners to score.
Tennessee rode nobody harder to get to Omaha than Hunley but the senior struggled in back-to-back outings for the first time all season. Hunley allowed three hits and one earned run while getting just two outs against Virginia.
Against Texas, Hunley entered in a tie game in the fourth inning and once again recorded just two outs while allowing three hits, three earned runs and an uncharacteristic two walks.
Before Hunley entered in a 4-4 game in the bottom of the fourth inning, Blade Tidwell turned in his worst start in six weeks allowing two hits, two walks and three earned runs. The freshman’s velocity was down in the start and he didn’t get near deep enough in the game to give the Vols a chance to crawl their way out of the loser’s bracket even if they could have gritted out a win.
Camden Sewell and Redmond Walsh both pitched well in Omaha but by the time they got in Tennessee was trailing in both games leading to the situations to be more low leverage.
Tennessee’s success on the mound came all year from throwing strikes and letting its defense work. Without a ton of arms with big time stuff maybe the best teams in the country were able to make them pay and that was always inevitable when they got to the biggest stage but Tennessee’s arms had pitched well against the SEC’s best all year.
In my opinion, it was simply a couple bad outings at the most important time of the year. Maybe the stage was too big for some people or maybe Hunley was worn down from the 70 innings he threw entering the week.
I do know, however, that Tennessee rode its arms that got it to Omaha and they didn’t deliver the way they needed to for the Vols to make a deep run.
3 —Some shifting on Vols’ coaching staff— While Tony Vitello hasn’t yet signed a contract extension there has been some shuffling on his staff for the first time since he took over in Knoxville in June of 2017.
Volunteer Assistant Coach Ross Kivett left Tennessee’s program for an assistant spot at Todd Whitting’s Houston program. Kivett had been in that role for all four of Vitello’s seasons in Knoxville.
It didn’t take Tennessee long to replace Kivett as Vitello stayed in house replacing Kivett with former Vols’ reliever and current graduate assistant Richard Jackson.
Jackson has run the Vols’ bullpen in games and worked with Tennessee’s pitchers the past two years serving as essentially a fourth assistant coach in a sport with more players per coach than any other.
Jackson’s promotion is just further proof of Vitello keeping loyalty as a main pillar in his program. Counting strength and conditioning, director of baseball operations and assistant coaches only one person on Vitello’s staff has left in four seasons— Kivett.
You should also see that loyalty in the next few weeks as I expect Vitello’s assistants to be receiving raises along with him.
Two Questions
What does Vitello’s extension/new contract look like?
Vol nation and Danny White breathed a sigh of relief when LSU hired Jay Johnson from Arizona last Thursday as the last— and by far the biggest— threat to poach Vitello away from Knoxville this season found its coach.
Now everything turns to Vitello’s contract which should be resolved soon. How many years does Vitello get extended or does he get a completely new contract, how much money is Vitello’s raise and how do you write stadium renovations into the contract are all major questions to me.
Ben McKee reported this weekend that he believes Vitello’s extension will be in the six year range and I expect it to be in that range too— likely probably a little less than six years. I’m not sure what Vitello’s raise will look like but I speculate that it will double his $600,000 salary and have yearly raises as his current contract does.
On Lindsey Nelson Stadium, I expect Tennessee to pour a staggering amount of money into renovating the Vols’ home stadium. That amount of money would give Vitello an opportunity to do more than just add more porches and bleachers down the left field wall.
What’s next on Vitello’s wish list? I know Vitello would like to add seats all the way around the outfield and to make it where you can walk around the stadium but that would likely require Tennessee to remove Todd Helton Drive, is that something the university is willing to do?
The main entrance of Lindsey Nelson Stadium could certainly use a face lift but how high a priority it is and how reasonable that is remains a question.
The last big question I have is how much does Tennessee try to do this offseason and how much do they put off to a further date? I would be shocked if there isn’t major work done before next season that adds seats down the left field line as well as suites.
2. Who’s back, who’s gone?
With Vitello returning to Knoxville for his fifth season at Tennessee the question of the offseason now turns to who the Vols will lose off their 50-win team.
The seniors who are out of eligibility and can not come back for another season are Pete Derkay and Will Heflin.
For the rest of Tennessee’s roster, Vitello and company will have to wait until after the 20 round MLB Draft that will take place July 11-13.
I’d be shocked if Chad Dallas, Max Ferguson, Liam Spence and Jake Rucker—all juniors— aren’t drafted high enough to where they forego their senior season to start their professional careers.
Camden Sewell is a junior who will be drafted in the coming weeks but whether he returns to Tennessee or turns professional is very up in the air. Sewell’s dominant second half of the season has improved his draft stock but he could certainly improve it greatly by coming back and performing as an effective weekend starter next season.
Seniors Jackson Leath and Sean Hunley are two to watch in the MLB Draft to see how far they fall. I still would be surprised if Leath returns but that option seems more likely than it did a few months ago.
Then there are the two seniors who likely won’t be drafted in Redmond Walsh and Evan Russell. Russell said in Omaha that he was planning on 2021 being his final season in a Tennessee jersey but that he had some more thinking to do.
While things can change, I think there’s a strong chance Walsh returns for a final season, needing eight saves to surpass Todd Helton as the Vols’ all time save leader.
One Prediction
Vols will make it back to Omaha under Vitello
There were just too many roster questions remaining at this point for me to make a prediction on the 2022 Vols. I think Tennessee will be back in the NCAA Tournament next season and I think the Vols could very well host a regional again but that’s just too hard to project with the questions remaining on the roster.
What I have complete confidence in is that Vitello’s program will show consistency becoming a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament and near the top of the SEC standings.
And with that, I believe Tennessee will be back in Omaha playing at the sports biggest stage while Vitello is the head coach, and when they do I’d bet the Vols perform better.
