With Tennessee baseball completing its Fall World Series over the weekend, the Vols have finalized their fall preparation for the upcoming season.

On Thursday, head coach Tony Vitello met with the media to give his thoughts.

Here are my takeaways from what he had to say.

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One of the biggest questions for Tennessee heading into the season is who will man the middle infield spot opposite of Christian Moore. Currently, one of the best bets is freshman Ariel Antigua.

The highly-touted newcomer has turned heads throughout fall practice including great play in the Fall World Series. This is a result of a change in work ethic since arriving on campus.

"He's developed work ethic wise," said Vitello. "How he approaches things like a pro. But he's nowhere near where he needs to be. He could be playing in the middle at second or short or wherever. Or, he could have a career here three or four years playing a huge percentage of our games and that comes with a lot of responsibility. So, you have to be a pro in how you approach things and how you react to certain situations."

Where Vitello wants to see Antigua grow the most between now and the start of the season is his consistency.

It's great to make highlight plays that go viral on social media, but for the team to be successful, the Vols need Antigua to be a dependable option in the field and at the plate.

"I think he's still growing on the infield and offensively on just how to be consistent," said Vitello. "He's got a flair for the dramatic. He even had an Air Jordan looking play at the Fall World Series if you were in Chattanooga where he jumped as high as he could and made a dynamic play. So, he can make or even hit to the point where it's a SportsCenter type effort. But, what we need out of him is the consistency day in and day out."

Along with the middle infield, another question is who will be the third starter in the weekend pitching rotation. Currently, Drew Beam is a lock for one of the roles with sophomore AJ Russell making his case for the second.

"For us, it is to try to find the combination that wins us the most games," said Vitello. "You want to win a weekend series anytime you play. It could be a round-robin tournament like we'll find in Dallas. You want to win two out of three for obvious reasons. So, what can get us closest to that is the combination that we'll look for as coaches. There's probably no one right answer."

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To find this answer, Vitello is prepared to use different options to figure out what sticks.

"We're just going to have to try to flirt with combinations and try different things and guys are going to have to be accepting of what they're asked to do," said Vitello. "To me, three outs is three outs. Go out there and get your three outs. And maybe you're only asked to go get one. But we've got a lot of depth, we've got a lot of competition. If they all do the work the way they're supposed to over the winter, we'll have a lot of options for what you're talking about."

When will this be decided? Perhaps not until right before the season. There's a chance it could take even longer, as well.

"I don't think we'll have those answers until probably March, April," said Vitello. "Who knows? Maybe it's a deal where the whole year long we're trying to work and scrap for wins and trying to figure out what works for us."

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