After Tennessee baseball’s 7-2 series-sweeping loss to Arkansas on Sunday, head coach Tony Vitello talked more than about just the game or the series.
Now 5-10 in SEC play, the Vols skipper isn’t necessarily worried about the amount of losses or the lack of wins.
Vitello is worried about toughness.
“I worry about this team playing tough enough,” Vitello said. “Tough enough that we all feel good about it when we get in the shower here — which that sounds like a goofy comment — but we get on the bus, you go home lay your head on the pillow. That’s what I want. That’s been said indirectly [and] directly.”
Tennessee is a team that has shown the ability to beat some the best of the best in college baseball any given day. But the Vols are also a team that have been flat-out uncompetitive at times, and they have consistently made little league defensive mistakes throughout SEC play.
Any SEC baseball schedule is a gauntlet, but the Vols recent slate has been one of the toughest imaginable with top-ranked LSU, third-ranked Florida and, most recently, fifth-ranked Arkansas all handing Tennessee series losses.
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However, Vitello isn’t using the grueling schedule as a scapegoat. He knows the roots of Tennessee’s struggles begin in their own dugout.
“To me, it is about us,” Vitello said. “The league, I don’t know where everybody stands. I am worried about our dugout. The league will dictate, if you are .500 it was a phenomenal year. Even a game under .500 is something you can hang your hat on in this league. Anything above it is phenomenal. We have work to do if we are going to get anywhere close to that mark. I think it is more about us not playing as well as we can to be that far under .500. But yeah we have faced some really good teams.”
As Vitello alluded to, Tennessee has faced some of the best college baseball has to offer, and a schedule like the one Tennessee has had will only amplify an issue such as lacking toughness.
“This league will chew you up and spit you out if you’re not tough, but also the game of baseball will do the same thing too,” Vitello said. “At the end of the day you want to be able to hang your hat on something but there’s only going to be one team that wins the last game of the year this year. If it’s hanging your hat on wins and losses only you’re chasing a ghost.”
Outside of an impressive weekend at the plate from Kavares Tears, a few home runs and a solid Sunday relief outing from Chase Burns, there are little things for Tennessee to hang its hat on.
We are only halfway through the SEC schedule, and Tennessee’s second-half slate is much more manageable, so there is time for the Vols to turn things around. And once in the postseason, anything is possible. Just ask the 2022 Ole Miss Rebels.
But a second-half turnaround or a postseason run will require toughness, something Tony Vitello is still searching for in the dugout and on the field 36 games into the season.
