Former UT baseball coach Tony Vitello may actually be able to help out the Tennessee Vols in the SEC Tournament this week.

Tennessee is set to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Tuesday in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Hoover.

The SEC Tournament will feature a new rule that wasn’t utilized during the regular season. And it’s a rule that Vitello has some experience with now that he’s the manager of the San Francisco Giants.

The SEC Tournament will feature the ABS challenge system

The ABS (Automated Balls and Strikes) system, which made its MLB regular season debut this year, will be used in the SEC Tournament.

Each team will receive three challenges during the game, and if you win the challenge, you keep it (MLB gives teams two challenges).

“The introduction of this challenge system at the SEC Tournament reflects our continued commitment to innovation,” said SEC commissioner Greg Sankey earlier this month. “This addition represents a continued step forward for our game, aligns more closely with the professional level and supports the development of our student-athletes as they prepare for success at the next level.”

Vols head coach Josh Elander told reporters on Monday that he plans to reach out to some MLB contacts for advice on using the challenge system.

“We’re actually going to connect with some of our pro connections today,” said Elander. “And see like, ‘Hey, are there any rules or parameters? How do we go about that?’ And we’ll talk with our guys.

“There is a little bit of a strategy element, but I think it’s cool that SEC continues to be on the forefront of whether it be the base or implementing stuff like this. I think we’re all for anything they’re doing up there because that’s where our guys are going to end up eventually.”

Vitello wasn’t mentioned directly, but it goes without saying that giving the former UT coach a call to ask about his experiences with the ABS system so far this season would be a wise move by Elander (the Giants also have several former Tennessee assistants on staff).

The biggest piece of advice that Vitello will likely be able to offer is to save the challenges for high leverage situations (unless it’s just an egregiously bad call). There’s no need to challenge a close pitch on an 0-0 count. Instead, it’s much smarter to save the challenges for a situation where it changes a walk to a strikeout (or vice versa), or when a strikeout on a close call ends an inning with runners in scoring position.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how teams use the ABS system in Hoover this week.