Tennessee's Tony Vitello sees improvement heading into series vs. Florida
Last weekend, Tennessee traveled to Baton Rouge to take on LSU.
After spending almost the entirety of last season as the No. 1 team in the country, the tables were turned as the Vols met this year's top-ranked squad.
What resulted was two narrow losses on Thursday and Friday and a lopsided win on Saturday to avoid a sweep.
Although this chapter of the season has closed, the Vols' schedule gets no easier. Next up in Tennessee's gauntlet of a stretch is a home series against Florida.
The set against the Gators comes after a series against ranked teams in Missouri and Texas A&M along with the Tigers.
Due to this stretch, Tennessee has opened SEC play with a 4-5 record. This is well below the expected mark for the Vols, but some hope was inspired during the trip to Baton Rouge.
One area of improvement was Tennessee's bats making a difference in the third game.
Ultimately, the Vols scored 14 runs in the match while producing 17 hits including four doubles and a home run.
“You see the arms that we’re facing and look at the at-bats, they’re incredibly competitive," said Tennessee coach Tony Vitello. "Obviously, you would like more production than the previous nights but I would say (LSU pitcher Griffin) Herring was the one blip on the radar screen. We knew him and along with everyone else recruited the kid. He was lights out last night. Other than that I’d like to think our guys were in the box as competitive as they are.
"Again, they executed better the first two days but the guy they ran out there to start the game today isn’t that far off from some of the other stuff they’ve got going on.”
Another positive takeaway that Vitello noted was the Vols' strength in the bullpen.
Tennessee boasts a trio of elite starters but all three have gotten out to slow starts in conference play. None of them were fully able to silence LSU's bats over the weekend.
However, pitchers Camden Sewell, Seth Halvorsen and Andrew Lindsey came in and looked impressive out of the bullpen.
The group pitched for 10.2 total innings while allowing just two earned runs in the series.
“I thought (Chase) Dollander did not have his best stuff and by that, really command because the stuff was good," said Vitello. "Normally he has spot on command but it wasn’t there and he battled through it which we appreciate, but you know with Sewell and (Halvorsen) and Lindsey, you’ve kind of got three other SEC weekend starters caliber-wise down there. We don’t mind handing the ball off to the bullpen.”
However, just because positives were shown didn't mean there was nothing to correct. After all, the Vols dropped two games in the series.
These losses can mostly be attributed to avoidable mistakes in the field and on the base path.
Over the weekend, Tennessee was knocked with six errors with even more mistakes not being listed. This was a key reason the team fell in the first two games.
Running the bases has been a problem, as well. This has already cost the team games in the past.
Although these issues were still prevalent, Vitello believes they've improved since the beginning of the year.
“Base-running and outfield defense was a thing early in the year and honestly they’ve both improved tremendously," said Vitello. "Part of it is getting personnel in the right area. If you were to ask me, ‘you get to pick one area,’ it would be, I don’t know that we’d get around a campfire or anything, but it’s just coming together. Be one of the guys. That’s not that easy to do when you haven’t been on the field playing next to a guy or you haven’t been in a program."
Tennessee will look to continue this improved style of play in their series against the highly-ranked Gators.
Florida enters the series coming off a weekend slate vs. Auburn.
Despite facing a weak Tigers squad at home, Auburn took the first game of the series and nearly stole the third, as well.
However, Florida still holds a No. 3 ranking in the country according to D1Baseball.
The team is led by junior outfielder Wyatt Langford. In 22 games, he has hit for a .392 average while slugging eight home runs.
This production makes him one of the highest-rated prospects in the upcoming MLB Draft.
The first game of the series will begin at 8 p.m. ET in Knoxville. It will air on ESPNU with Dollander on the mound for the Vols.
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