Tennessee's Tony Vitello gives discouraging update on a key Vol's status
It doesn't sound like things are going great for one of the Vols' best hurlers, at least according to his head coach. Tony Vitello met with the media on Friday night after the Vols' 9-3 win over Northern Kentucky in their opening game of the Knoxville regional in the 2024 NCAA baseball tournament. His response […]
It doesn't sound like things are going great for one of the Vols' best hurlers, at least according to his head coach.
Tony Vitello met with the media on Friday night after the Vols' 9-3 win over Northern Kentucky in their opening game of the Knoxville regional in the 2024 NCAA baseball tournament. His response to a question about the status of pitcher AJ Russell indicated the Vols don't plan to have him back very soon.
"No, he's not active," Vitello said. "Probably will get looked at again. We haven't fast forwarded there. But just based off playing catch, there's no need to battle the soreness factor, step one, and then step two would be make sure he's good to go – and should be throwing at all. So, what he did for us on Sunday was great. I think it was obvious though with his couple of outings he did give us that he hadn't really been what his best version of himself is since Texas Tech.
"So, if anything, I think it alleviates the cloud of – for these guys too, not just him, but also us – what is, what isn't. So at least we're on one side of the fence or the other, and everyone knows we'd rather be fully on the other, but at least there's some clarity there. So, he won't be active."
When asked whether he would be shut down for the rest of the season, Vitello noted that more evaluation would be needed first.
"He's going to get looked at, and we'll figure that out. Rest of the season could be tomorrow for everybody (laughs)."
The Texas Tech game Vitello referenced was back on February 16 against the Red Raiders. Russell struck out 10 batters over 4.1 innings, including the first 8 batters of the game.
However, things went downhill from there health wise for the big righty. He left the game against Albany on February 23 with what was believed at the time to be side soreness. He returned in mid-March against Alabama and Ole Miss but left the game against the Rebels with arm soreness that kept him out for the next two months. Russell returned in the SEC tournament against Vanderbilt and LSU, pitching one inning in each game.
Now, it sounds as though his season could be in jeopardy of being over, unless the Vols can make a deep run in the tournament, and he gets a positive evaluation in the coming days.
His teammates will look to take care of the first part when they face Indiana in the winners' bracket on Saturday evening at 6:00 pm ET.
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