Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello was named the Perfect Game coach of the year on Wednesday.
The honor for Vitello comes after he led the Vols to one of the best regular seasons ever by a college baseball team. Tennessee finished the season with a 57-9 record while leading the NCAA in ERA and runs scored (among many other categories).
This is the second straight year that Vitello has won the award.
The back-to-back @PerfectGameUSA 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿, Tony Vitello!#GBO // #OTH pic.twitter.com/Huc97MTSTg
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) June 15, 2022
While I’m sure Vitello appreciates the award (it will help in recruiting, after all), I doubt he’s celebrating it.
That’s because Vitello would much rather be preparing his team for a trip to Omaha for the College World series.
Tennessee’s season came to an early end this past weekend via a loss in the Super Regional to Notre Dame (the Vols lost the best-of-3 series two games to one).
UT may have come up short of their goal this season, but they’ll be one of the favorites again to win it all in 2023. They just have to get over the sting of failing to reach Omaha this year first.
Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
