Tennessee baseball got back in the win column Tuesday night after a disappointing final two games of its weekend series at Georgia defeating instate foe Austin Peay 9-4 Tuesday night.
The Vols used nine different pitchers and totaled a season-high 10 walks while Charlie Taylor had this hit of the game.
See everything Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said about the win.
More From RTI: Tennessee Outlasts Austin Peay At Lindsey Nelson Stadium
On how he felt Kavares Tears looked in his first game back from injury
“Good. I think he took some great swings. He was just under that one if I’m not mistaken — deep to center on the third at-bat. We just wanted to get him out there. I don’t know. We could have used him at Georgia. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t know how right I’d feel about a guy sitting for two weeks not even getting to see any live pitching and then being inserted in a game with the game being on the line, which is what it would have been. Actually, we were getting him ready on Sunday if we could have rallied a little bit better, he would have made an appearance then.
“Overall, just good to have him back. We made sure to get him out there. He looked good defensively in pre-game batting practice. He saved us a run just with him his arm on the scouting report. And then took some good swings, just, if you’re going to go off results, not a lot to show for it.”
On how he would assess Seth Halvorsen’s appearance out of the bullpen and why he stuck him in centerfield for part of the ninth inning
“Well, those pitchers are about as goofy as it gets, but they do run around out there in the outfield kind of like Sean Hunley who just got recognized for how well he’s doing. I mean, he got good enough, he could play infield for us. We joke about it, but — and I hope he doesn’t hear this, but — same thing. (Jake Fitzgibbons), it could have reversed. Fitz could go in the outfield and some of those other guys out there fancy themselves athletes, but they kind of work at it and do it enough that you trust them. Obviously we had run the gamut with out pitchers and we were just trying to create a safety valve there. Griffin (Merritt) had made the last out, so he wouldn’t have come up for awhile. You’d like to think we’d walk them off if we were going to have to hit again, so we just kind of did it that way.
“He’s (Halvorsen) been throwing the ball well. He’s been determined to do better than he had and it certainly has been that way.”
On if Hollis Fanning is starting to earn more trust
“I think so. It was awesome to see how well he did prior to going to Georgia, when, it wasn’t a try-out, but kind of a competitive situation not in a game and you always want to see guys treat that as something they need to attack, as opposed to it’s like a penalty. He pitches at Georgia, great outing. Pitchers here early in the game and did really well. Thought we were about to get in a rhythm there — because Zander (Sechrist) was great. It’s kind of — you don’t get wins I guess when do it the way we do it, right or wrong, but now that he’s established himself as a reliever in SEC weekends and doing this, the guy has done a lot for us the last two years.”
On the altercation in the bottom of the sixth inning
“It’s a double with two outs, so more times than not, you are going to send the guy and make the team play catch because you already got a hit with two outs, and it’s not that we don’t trust the guys behind him, it’s just percentages. Unfortunately, we have one of our least fleet of foot guys running, and they did a good job of playing catch. So, he (Burke) tried to slide underneath the tag. I didn’t see anything at all, and I don’t think the catcher did, either. Maybe it happened faster than I saw, but the pitcher, to me, he got all fired up… he could’ve thanked us. We got him an out there. I think the umpires did a really nice job. Guys are out of the dugout, and they’re not supposed to leave their position, but they’re all on the dirt, or the brown part of everything, just because they see something is going on. But again, I didn’t see anyone react except for one person.”
On if Hunter Ensley was originally ejected
“I think he was pointing somebody out. And then again, in all the madness, I said we wanted to review the play. I can’t see if he’s safe or out. Clearly, the ball beat him by a lot, but it looked like he at least got to home plate. So, we were going to review it, and to be honest with you, we were going to review just to try and calm the seas a little bit there. In the midst of all that, there was a bunch of different discussions, and the bottom line is, we got back out there and played ball. And nobody from either side, or even the fans, treated it like we were at a bar room brawl or something like that.”
On if Chase Burns will be available this weekend
“Yeah. And I’m trying to run through who I was asked about. I was asked about KT in Georgia and again it’s that time of year where you’re not going to have anyone 100% but it is nice with this group to come to the park and know everyone is available because our record is obviously better than when it is when we don’t have everyone available.”
On what Cal Stark has given them behind the plate
“Just a lot of energy and a lot of direction. Kind of what you want out of your point guard in basketball and that could, at least that’s the stereotype that would be thrown out there when I was trying to play and you didn’t have 6-6 point guards and stuff like that. A lot of direction for not just the pitchers but the guys out there and then just a vibe that we kind of needed earlier in the year or as the year progressed we’ve built on that vibe of just guys being in it to win it. Cliche for a reason and everyone can feel that. And you can certainly feel it from the other guy (Charlie Taylor) too who hit a grand slam so it’s nice to have two high character kids at that position, as is Dickey and Miller, it’s just that we’ve kind of settled into those two guys are very capable defensively and every now and again they give us a nice sock. Two of our last three home runs from those two guys, maybe? Chuck and Cal.”
On how impressive Christian Scott’s home run was
“C Scott is maybe our fastest guy and he wasn’t running. And he hit it to the deepest part of the park and he knew he got it. That’s how impressive it was but the other thing was earlier in the at-bat it wasn’t going his way. He’s really matured a lot and is able to maintain composure in that situation and others where I think he would agree, freshman year he probably doesn’t. He’s got for a guy that’s, I won’t call him small because he could probably push me around but for a guy who is low center of gravity, contact dude, he is pretty strong.”
On Charlie Taylor’s big night
“That sounded like a buck shot when he hit it. Kind of like a couple other really good ones we’ve had. That’s one of the louder ovations or just yells, when the ball was struck and then when the ball hit the batter’s eye, than I’ve heard. It kind of speaks to they appreciate the way he plays and he’s kind of a fan favorite and he’s a clubhouse favorite too. Those guys in the dugout were pretty dang fired up for him and it played into the game or it completely changed the way the game was going. It certainly gave us a cushion that we knew we needed.”
On why Charlie Taylor is a fan favorite
“I think a part of it is the way he plays the game. Our kids are pretty good about signing autographs or being involved in the community, so the people know who they are. I think that is what has helped our fanbase grow. There is kind of a relationship there. If you’re someone who does something wrong, somebody will probably get ahold of that. When you do things right all the time, they have that information as well. I think that is who Chuck is. I think it kind of got insinuated when he got thrown into a pretty interesting role there in last year’s regional and handled it so well. He’s fun to cheer for, but there’s a few reasons why.”
On the walks leading to runs in the sixth inning
“Bryce [Jenkins] comes in and gets us out of the biggest moment. It’s 2-0 with the bases loaded. Your coach is supposed to put you in a position to success and not fail. But he was like Houdini, to steal the words of John Wilkerson. Because of the way that it had gone – right or wrong – it is a delicate balance. As long as they are competing, especially n the weekends, they’ve earned the right to keep the ball in their hands. We have depth here. We kind of have a proud deal. I think we went over 100 homers tonight and we led the country last year. We don’t talk about that nearly as much in recruiting, coaching and how we want to do things. So, there’s a highs standard for pitching. He met it at the beginning of the outing and towards the end, his highest pitch count total. When it started to go wrong with a couple of borderline pitches are out of the zone and it’s not going well – he just didn’t right the ship as well as I’m sure he would have liked to. That’s more difficult for hitters and pitchers this year with the pitch clock. You don’t get as much time to step back and catch your breath and all that stuff. Now he can say he has been in a bunch of difficult situations for us. He has done really well in a lot of them and not so well in come. He will be really prepared for the next one.”
