Tennessee baseball lost its fourth straight game Tuesday night, falling to Tennessee Tech 12-5 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The Golden Eagles never trailed, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning before shutting the door with a five-run ninth inning.
Here’s everything Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said after the disappointing loss.
More From RTI: What To Know About Tennessee’s Loss Against Tennessee Tech
On Zach Joyce leaving the game with an injury
“Zach has had issues prior to being here with the ligament in his elbow. He felt some discomfort there and it led to further discomfort down the hand. I got a mid-game update when I went back there. I believe he was seeing Dr. Rappe. I’ll know more specifically tomorrow, but it didn’t seem good. He came out and hugged his teammates and they were obviously concerned for him. But that one doesn’t look good.”
On Maui Ahuna and Christian Moore’s injury
“With Maui, he’s had some discomfort in his back and had it looked at. I know there’s some issues there but I don’t know how serious. But definitely wasn’t available tonight.
“Then C-Mo, all that stuff just happened today. You get off the road recruiting, you make a lineup and then some guys aren’t available so you readjust. I kind of stay out of those guys ways and then obviously, we’ll get with (Tennessee trainer Jeff Wood) and get the full update.”
On what went wrong against Tennessee Tech
“You look at the box score and there’s a million guys that are listed on there for us. I think there’s some improper decisions there on the timing of guys on the mound. Also put some guys in position that maybe they’re not used to. You can call it, in part, because of injury, but really just trying to go for broke on offense. I think our offense is capable of really good things, but for whatever reason, it’s a little strangled right now. So, you try and do some things and obviously when you don’t win, you look back on it and would probably do several things differently, but also their team showed up and played. Right out of the shoot they were hitting and didn’t stop. You could tell they were relaxed at the beginning of the game, but when they sensed they had an opportunity to win the game, it kind of ramped up. They were excited on defense and seemed to be even more relaxed in the ninth than they were at the start of the game in the inning — you know, a couple balls just passed some guy’s gloves. (Seth Halvorsen) has great stuff and they earned what they got for the most part other than the dropped ball.”
On his message to the team after the game
“Like I kind of talked about, it’s our job to put them in a position to succeed. Probably need to do things a little differently and then also when you get back off a trip like that there is no time for lack of a better word be hungover from the loss or still be down from the loss and then to kind of be slowly building up for the weekend. Which any SEC team or any conference that’s out there you can fall into that trap. Whether we did that tonight or not I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I do think some guys that are usually pretty good with the ball in their hand on the mound didn’t look like they were ready to do that and then some of the offensive patterns that happened this weekend carried over to today, and again, having said all that, some of those (Tennessee Tech) guys played really well. Brock the lefty has good stuff. You can see it on video no doubt. His stat sheet going into today probably isn’t what he wants it to be but with this it’ll be improved and he was lights out for those guys.”
On what he says to the team after the last five days
“There’s no more talking, there’s doing. May is the month you want to look forward to as a student athlete in college. Ideally finals gets behind you somewhere in there early. Freshman to me — like Russell showed tonight — should be looked at as almost like sophomores. They’ve been here for almost a whole year. The weather is nice and the competition is fierce whether it’s conference or not. It’s time to do and maybe our part of that is rather than try and mix-and-match too much, go with who we think are the guys and ride them out.”
On if they plan on starting Andrew Lindsey again on Friday night
“He’s in position too. We all went recruiting and get back an hour before the team meal today and everyone is kind of scrambling and you’re also trying to shake off the trip and get ready for today. We’ll chat about it but I don’t plan on doing anything crazy this weekend.”
On if that’s the same for Dollander and Beam on Saturday and Sunday
“Do is throwing the ball as well as he has all year. Call it a mulligan for Beam, I don’t know. Maybe getting caught up in other stuff or maybe feeling the pressure of we didn’t play well the first two days there. Whatever it was, it seemed to be a little bit of an aberration for them.”
On if players feel how tough it’s been this year after getting in routine of winning the past few years
“I don’t think surprised. Frustrated is an obvious word to use, but various emotions. It’s a little bit of a roller coaster from the regrouping process of restarting or taking this approach or switching this up or that up – and you don’t get immediate feedback, it turns into a roller coaster. This time of the year, you are best to keep it simple. Run around out there and enjoy playing. You better compete the way you plan to in your head or otherwise you’re going to look back and regret it. There’s no do overs right now. I don’t mean to belittle the very beginning of the seasons, but one thing you could argue then was a lesson learned or we needed reps for the freshmen or whatever. It’s towards the end of the year, so it’s do or do not.’
On confidence in the team’s leadership
“I think here’s some guys who are candidates to do that, that are kind of reaching a boiling point where it’s either I do something, or I put it in my back pocket. I think if you’re a guy who is in position to be a leader, you want to win. You don’t want to put it in your back pocket. You’re going to do whatever you feel like you need to do in the dugout or to prepare for your outing or at-bat and out in the field. It’s not blind leading the blind in there. There’s guys capable of doing that and who are also in the batter’s box at key times or on the mound at key times. A big part of being a leader is just doing your job. When you’re pretty sound at that, you can kind of branch out a little but and make sure you are herding everyone in.”
On if guys have reached their boiling point
“Yeah, I think so. Again, to stick with that theme – it’s not Christmas. It’s the time of the year in baseball to do it or do not. It’s not like dodgeball where sometimes the guy gets angry and he turns into the best dodgeball player ever. You have to take a stand and have a little pride in what you represent, what your program represents and what the things are you want to be judged by. I was perturbed about something else right at the start of the interview on day three over there. Something totally random. But I think I said it, you can’t just judge yourself on wins. There’s going to be one team who wins the national championship. When you get back in your car or at your apartment, what do you want everyone who was at the game to say about you? That’s what I’m getting at.
On if the team is responding the way he wants them to
“Yeah, I mean today, maybe you wait a little bit and okay, we’ve been told, this will be… you’re playing an in-state team, a good program, a team that beat us last year, but be ready for a dogfight and to come back from Arkansas and wear your pride on your chest a little bit, and maybe it took a little while to get that going. But there’s plenty of want-to, and again, any decisions or sticking with a guy or making a quick switch or something like that comes from a place of us wanting to win, and sometimes you spin the wheels a little too much. So, maybe a couple of days to reset here and play at home and keep things simple and make it all about this weekend is the best approach possible.”
On if he’s ever been around a team that’s this left-handed dominant offensively
“No, I can’t recall one that is this left-handed dominant. It was a big topic in the summer. It was a big stressor, and everyone says, ‘It was great the guys we lost off last year’s team.’ Courltand Lawson and guys like that. Yeah, it’s great. We want our guys to go. We have not had one guy turn down an offer, whether it be a free agent offer or to one of our guys when they get drafted, and that’s kind of the way we want it. But we did lose a lot of guys that were supposed to be incomers. So, it kind of swings over to the left-handed side. I got to be honest with you, it is a matchup deal, but I don’t know if that’s been as big of an issue as we potentially thought it could be. When we played Wake Forest and even played Memphis, a couple of the lefties that they showed us… there’s other areas that if we shored up, I think that would switch the win column, not if we just magically added a right-handed hitter.”
