Tony Vitello statement should have Tennessee fans fired up ahead of Super Regional
The Tennessee Vols will take the field on Saturday at 3:00 PM ET against Southern Mississippi in the first game of a best-of-three Super Regional showdown in Hattiesburg. Tennessee is looking to reach the College World Series for the second time in the last three seasons. The Vols missed out on a trip to Omaha […]
The Tennessee Vols will take the field on Saturday at 3:00 PM ET against Southern Mississippi in the first game of a best-of-three Super Regional showdown in Hattiesburg.
Tennessee is looking to reach the College World Series for the second time in the last three seasons.
The Vols missed out on a trip to Omaha last year after losing to Notre Dame in the Knoxville Super Regional.
For most of the 2023 season, Tennessee has struggled on the road. But that trend has changed over the last couple of weeks. The Vols closed the regular season with a series win against the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia.
After a quick exit from the SEC Tournament, Tennessee went 3-0 in the Clemson regional (including that memorable 14-inning win against the Tigers).
While it's impossible to predict what will or won't happen during a baseball game/series, one thing about Tennessee is certain — they're going to have the same intensity against Southern Miss that they had in the Clemson regional. Vols head coach Tony Vitello is sure of it.
"No one is not going to be pouring their heart and soul out onto the field," said Vitello on Thursday. "You can come up with whatever set of circumstances you want. For coaches, players, fan bases. Everyone is going to give it their best go. It is a baseball game, so there’s a lot of crazy things that can happen. Really, whatever competitive edge you’re looking for, it’s got to be based off of what your team has become throughout the year and there were teams last year that served as good examples for us now of, maybe the quickest path or the best path from point A to point B isn’t a straight line. And for us, there’s no way it’s been a straight line."
"Our zig-zag path, ups, and downs, rollercoaster, whatever it’s been throughout this year, it’s who we are, so stay true to who we are," added Vitello. "And who we are is a group of guys who are pretty capable when we’re playing our best or close to it. Throwing out the word best is ironic because I don’t think we’ve necessarily found that yet, especially over the course of a complete weekend.”
It can be argued that Tennessee peaked too early last year. Maybe that's true. Or maybe they just had a bad weekend against Notre Dame. Whatever the case, I don't think there's any debate that this year's team is peaking at the right time. There's still a long way to go, but these Vols have the right mindset to not only get to Omaha but to win the whole damn thing.
Featured image via Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
