Tennessee Baseball: Tony Vitello has perfect reaction to tough situation
It's probably a bit too early to say that the Tennessee Vols baseball team is "all the way back", but they've certainly looked like their old selves during the first two games of their series against the Vanderbilt Commodores. Tennessee won the first two games of the series against Vandy in classic Vols fashion (at […]
It's probably a bit too early to say that the Tennessee Vols baseball team is "all the way back", but they've certainly looked like their old selves during the first two games of their series against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Tennessee won the first two games of the series against Vandy in classic Vols fashion (at least what's become "classic" under Tony Vitello).
The Vols fought their way back on Friday night to win on Griffin Merritt's walk-off home run before Saturday's 17-1 blowout win.
Tennessee will go for the sweep on Sunday, but they'll be doing it without second baseman Christian Moore. The New York native will be suspended for Sunday's game after getting ejected during Saturday's win.
Moore was ejected after confronting Vanderbilt's Troy LaNeve who appeared to slightly push Tennessee pitcher Chase Dollander, who was covering first base, in order to avoid getting doubled up at first. The ejection means Moore is automatically suspended for the Vols' next game.
After the game, Vols head coach Tony Vitello was asked about the incident. And he had exactly the reaction that a leader should have.
"I saw most of it, I was going out there to make sure CMo (Moore) wasn’t going to do anything he wasn’t supposed to do," said Vitello. "And actually, I talked to him and told him we were going to bring in somebody else, which he wasn’t happy about, but then after that, there was a decision to eject him which means he will not be available tomorrow. But what led up to it was their guy running the bases hard regardless of the score and our guy getting over to cover first base in Doe (Dollander), and I don’t know what Doe said about it, but there was contact."
"But it was, I don’t want to say incidental, but it was two guys playing baseball, man," continued Vitello. "So, I’ll acknowledge the fact that CMo has got a lot of passion, and I’d rather have guys with passion than without. I also will acknowledge the fact that he has got his teammates' back. I think that was the intent of what he was doing, but I also think the situation, with all due respect to the team we played and the scoreboard, it wasn’t necessary."
“But, it might be a good thing. A guy gets an opportunity tomorrow. I don’t know who it is, but there’s a lot of guys over there itching to get out there and play, and at the very least somebody, and it’ll probably be somebody young, again sticking with that theme, will get that opportunity.”
Vitello made it clear with his comments that Moore's actions probably weren't necessary — especially considering that Tennessee was easily in control of the game. Moore's actions took him out of the picture for the series finale on Sunday, which could certainly have a negative impact on the team.
But Vitello made sure to not criticize Moore too much. He praised Moore's passion and the fact that he had Dollander's back. Additionally, Vitello found a way to turn it into a positive (someone else getting a chance to step up in Moore's absence).
I know the 2023 season hasn't gone perfectly for the Volunteers, but this weekend has been a reminder of how special Tennessee's program can be. And that all starts with the leadership of Tony Vitello.
