Everything Tony Vitello, Tennessee players said after win over Evansville

Tennessee baseball is off to a good start in the Knoxville Super Regional after downing Evansville in game one.

Following the win, Vols head coach Tony Vitello and players Kirby Connell and Hunter Ensley met with the media.

Here's what they had to say.

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Opening statement:

"It was a beautiful day at the ballpark with a great crowd and the sun shining. Obviously, it was a little windy and that was changing all day long, but what didn’t change was the competitiveness. Exactly what we thought was going to happen, happened. Their at-bats were going to be tough. (Kenton) Deverman was going to give us a tough look. We thought, with the game on the line, they would go to their guy (Shane) Harris and our guys did an outstanding job in a bunch of situations just showing some toughness. Good slides around home plate, battling with two strikes, making adjustments, and their guys did too. You have a guy going 100 miles per hour into the wall and plenty of other situations that you could point out that made it probably a fun game to watch and a stressful game to be in the dugout."

On how impressive the front five of the lineup is:

"I guess what could be impressive is you start a new week, and you’d like to call it a tournament, but it’s really just a series. You could go one of two ways. You could try and do too much or you could try and stay true to who you are. As you said, there’s been kind of a thing there all year long, so you might as well rock and roll with that thing. Good leadership—if the stat sheet doesn’t show you what you’re looking for or what you’re talking about, I think good leadership started right out of the shoot today. It was a good vibe."

On what the team's response to Evansville says about them:

"It’s a difference. It’s a difference between this team and other ones that I’ve been able to be a part of or even sit there and watch my dad’s teams or even teams you cheer on. I’m not talking about just being here with the teams I’ve been a part of, just in general. It’s hard to get punched in the gut or the mouth. We brag on our league probably too much, not just us, but all SEC folks like to do that, but it does kind of get you used to getting hit. Gut, jaw, whatever you want to call it, shot, you have to be able to respond. My point is, I think this group, it’s a difference maker how they remain calm or try and punch back in situations where the other team does some damage on us. It helps the coaching staff realize it’s a nine-inning game. Literally, these leaders kind of help the coaches kind of maintain an even-keeled mindset."

On what led to the team having success with runners on base:

"It’s a tricky one because you could do everything you need to do. Christian Moore’s first at-bat is an example. He scalded that thing, and there was nothing to show for it. You could do everything you need to and be tough and not get good results. I think it was a byproduct of toughness. We have some skills, and we have physicality throughout the lineup. They do too. They have toughness. We showed some unique situations where guys were willing to make adjustments. A lot of times this year, you could see a guy swing out of control or way too big or get frustrated with one thing that happens in the middle of the at-bat and take himself out of it. It stuck out to me, so I shared it with the group in there."

On the decision to put Ariel Antigua at second base late in the game:

"We had chaos in there because you’re trying to figure out who to pitch and all that, and then on the other side of the ball offensively he (Christian Moore) had some soreness in his leg. I’ll go right next door and be able to speak more specifically. With the lead, Ariel has been our guy on defense. Sometimes, we do with Dean (Curley), and sometimes we do with Billy (Amick) based on where the lineup is at. On this particular occasion, we killed two birds with one stone and removed any doubt there as to what was going on with soreness. We did our thing with Ariel getting in the game and the first hitter hit it right to him."

On whether he expects Christian Moore to play tomorrow:

"Yes, for sure. One hundred percent."

On what was making it hard on the Tennessee offense against Evansville's reliever:

"I think there are two different looks to the breaking ball, but I'm not standing there. He's good at spinning it, and that's why he has been their guy with a good amount of saves and a lot of key appearances late in the game. For a reliever, we have got a couple guys like this, too—a huge amount of decisions. I think he was 8-3 going into the game. He is good for a reason, as you saw, and then (Jakob) Meyer came in after. They got more ammo down in that bullpen, but he is arguably their best piece. To get anything against him, I think all teams that have played him would tip their caps to us. As you saw, it was needed. You can't sit on what you’ve got. Our bats need to be as competitive as theirs. We just had to do it off a very, very good pitcher."

On how pivotal the third inning was for the Vols:

"Yeah, it was. I mean, it was wild. For those of you that just follow our team, it's not like we just have this crazy cloud above us just working this voodoo. Baseball is like that. Every time you come to the park you see something new and our guys competing. What comes out of that are some unique plays and a guy does something that gives us an advantage there like the back pick and then the stolen base situation. It's kind of funny, I don't know if it happened to them, but it happened in one of their games where you got a catcher's interference over in the Greenville regional. There's no doubt we were a benefactor. Everybody knows when you are in a series it's a race to two wins. But really, when you are in a game, it's a race to 27 outs. We will take them anyway you can get them."

On considering Evansville’s consistent effort going into tomorrow:

"We knew exactly what we were getting, and I think the players did, too. I have heard some underlying conversations. We don’t make them watch the games, but on Monday you want to put your feet up, and it was exciting. I watched more than I usually do. Those are cutthroat games that they are playing. I think our guys watched the Evansville versus East Carolina game, and they weren’t cheering for either team because they knew both teams are going to be hell, and they saw it for themselves. I think the one thing that you are combating is that we can have a conversation in the dugout as a whole team. They can talk in the locker room, but then you are going to have to combat what all you guys have to say and how the fans go back and forth. In our league, no one does that more than those folks. You have to decide which of those things that you want to pay attention to and which you don’t. Anyone that was wearing our uniform today knew it was going to be hell, and it will be like that tomorrow. [If] it comes down to where it’s one to one on Sunday it’ll be that, too."

On switching up the lineup and Hunter’s success:

"Prior to that there was already some momentum being built. Each year is very different, but things can play into this year from that year. Your expectation and what you want to do is like that. Sometimes you see guys motivated for one reason, others start out slower, hotter or whatever it might be. As repetition starts to pile up and when you get enough sample size you'll start to see what a guy is. I think the numbers are fine and they have been climbing, but I have said it a million times, usually when he is not around because we don't need this guy getting cocky, but he is in the lineup because he fights. Everybody knows he has the ability to hit. If you are in this game today going through those two lineups you’ve got to have the ability to hit. The results will come and go, but the more often you compete your butt off, you shift the percentages in your favor a bit, and that’s what he does."

On whether prior Super Regionals experience helps this time around:

"I think so. I think anytime you do something, you get something out of it. To simplify it for now, if you do well, you take confidence from it. If you don’t, you try and learn or see what’s different. It can only help when you experience something, one way or another, but I also think two years ago in college sports is kind of a long time. There’s different leaders on this team. There’s also a different way this group goes about it. On the radio, it was funny; they pointed out there are a lot of similarities between Evansville and Notre Dame, a team we played there, but there’s also a huge amount of differences, too. This is a different script that’s being written, but I do think the fact that we experienced it, whether we would have won it or lost it, gives us a little bit of an edge. So does last year. Having to do it on the road was obviously tough, but just those moments of being in a situation like this only benefit you."

On how he would recap the day:

"It all started with (Chris) Stamos. Stamos went out there and gave us a really good first inning. He kind of threw the first punch for us. Then, we went to Causey, then me and then (Aaron) Combs. We gave up some runs in the middle innings, but the offense helped a lot, and we let the defense play behind us."

On whether prior Super Regionals experience helps this time around:

"I think it helps. There’s a lot of guys from that ‘22 group, but then you have the new personalities that have come in this year and last year. A lot of those guys, they watched it in ‘22, but it was mainly just us learning, like Coach [Vitello] said, and having a different mentality going towards it."

On the Evansville offense:

"One through nine, they are pretty good. They have guys that can leave the yard any time, but it’s a lot of guys that are going to go up there and compete. [I] threw a lot of pitches. I threw almost everything I had. Threw the kitchen sink at one dude, and he ended up taking it for ball four. For me, it was just ‘throw it over the white, deal it down there like Coach [Anderson] says, and let the defense play behind me."

On what allowed him to fight back and battle in his two at-bats against Shane Harris:

"I think early in the count, I was trying to do a little too much. Later in the count, I think the only thing you can do with two strikes is get in there and compete. I was really trying to change my sight to the middle of the field rather than left center or left field. I think moving my sights over to the right side of the field helped that."

On what Hunter saw with his home run and what that does for the team:

"Well, I think on a day like today, it was really pushing out to left field. Also, the wind was changing with every inning. The ball was really flying, so I knew if I put a really good swing on it, it was gone off the bat. I think seeing CMo (Christian Moore), (Blake) Burke, and Billy (Amick) all homer today, it sort of bleeds into the rest of the team. It’s not that we are going up there trying to hit homers, but maybe our approach is to try to get the ball up in the air a little bit more and hopefully the wind will help us out a little bit."

On how they are able to respond quickly to falling behind:

"I don’t think one certain thing. I just think offensively, our mentality is any given inning we can get you for three, four, five or even more than that. Offensively, it is just keeping the foot on the pedal, and if we don’t get it done one inning then we might get it done in the sixth, seventh or eighth. It really doesn’t matter. I just think as good as our lineup is one through nine, we can get you with anybody at any different time."

On whether he remembers a ball hit as far into left field as Billy Amick’s third inning home run:

"I can remember one hit up there. I hit one in BP. I got Blade [Tidwell], too. I’ll send him this interview when we leave. That way he knows I’m talking about him. He crushed it but, yeah, I’ve hit a few up there, too, so I’m going to let him know that, for sure."

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