Around a long weather delay, Tennessee baseball defeated Belmont 9-5 in its final midweek game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium this season.
Hollis Fanning was fantastic in three innings of relief as Tennessee honored six seniors for its final home game of the regular season.
Here’s everything Vitello said after the win.
More From RTI: Everything To Know About Tennessee’s Win Over Belmont
On the motivation to play despite teams around the conference cancelling games due to RPI reasons and also with all the weather they had to deal with
“I can’t speak for others, but just to play ball. I’m very happy we played as much as we did. Once you set the rules, a rule is a rule. I’m not sure Coach (Dave) Jarvis — he was excellent to work with today. He has the reputation over in Nashville for a reason. He could not be a nicer guy, but obviously he’s on the competitive side of things, too. They have to travel tomorrow. Their conference deal kind of switched as well. So with both teams traveling, we didn’t want to go too late tonight and with the weather we made a no inning (rule) after 10:00 and (Andrew) Behnke was good tonight. That might have been his first strikeout of a lefty and he did it with one minute left in time. I know we didn’t have anything to show for it, but three guys got an at-bat in a game. That’s what we want.
“We’re supposed to be developing these guys, so in order to do so, they need to work hard outside of gameday, but we need to reward them and also evaluate them on gameday. That’s how Hollis Fanning has put himself in the position that he has. By being evaluated on practice day by working hard on those days and getting in the front of us and everybody else on a gameday and throwing strikes. He obviously has good stuff, too.
“Just wanna play man. Wanna find out who is better is part of it, but on a Tuesday this late in the year, to me it’s kind of more about keeping guys involved and on track to develop. With the 10-run rule thing, I know we lost over a game this year of innings, so that’s a lot of at-bats that you’d like to see Ryan Miller get and a couple more appearances you’d like to Fitzy (Jake Fitzgibbons) or somebody get, JJ Garcia. But we’ll take what we got tonight. So maybe they’ll let us add a game or two when those numbers start piling up for the 10-run rule for those people that like it.”
On Hollis Fanning’s performance
“He was outstanding. Basically made it impossible to take him out of the game. Part of it was the score dictated that. Hopefully at home, you’d like to separate yourself a little bit and create a little more flexibility where you can get guys in and out of there, but at that point in the game, he made it hard to take the ball out of his hand. I was going to ask him how he was feeling, but with the radar gun and the way he was throwing it, it kind of made it look like he was fresh. But in reality, he got as much work in as he could’ve this week, as he’s made a couple of other appearances. At the start of the day, after five innings, we’re not playing them again, so it’s over with if the rain comes. [Bryce] Jenkins comes in there basically for a save, because if it’s only a five-inning game… but it turned out what it was.”
On what Hollis Fanning has been like over the last two years
“I think he’s always been the same guy, mentality wise, around the park. He always likes to sing, I don’t know how good of a voice it is, but he always likes to sing. He’s not afraid to compete. He’ll put in his work. He’s a low-maintenance guy. And then on gameday, there’s just been varying results with, I think, varying personalities. The Tennessee Tech outing stands out last year here. We gave him a start, and basically we were kind of providing him an opportunity to win the fourth starter role, and it didn’t go that well. And I don’t think it went that way because he didn’t have good enough stuff or he wasn’t trying hard, it’s just some of these guys need to be out there and find their personality with two strikes, or coming out of the pen in a jam, or how they’re going to handle a start, and different situations that could come up in a game. That’s experience. All these freshmen in this league are so talented. They can go out there and get it done, but you got to kind of be, with your cleats in the ground, feeling out or vibing out a situation, to understand maybe a way you need to adjust or try something to see if it works or not, and I think right now, he’s found his gameday personality.”
On Blake Burke getting his groove back
“I really think just to stay athletic in his swing. I say running at the ball, it may not make sense, maybe charging at the ball. But ultimately when he’s athletic in his legs, it looks like a really pretty swing and it also becomes a productive swing. I think he and coach E(lander) got in it in the cage and got after it, working on that in particular. But then also just some conversations around the park, it’s something he wants to get better at. Again, that’s a little bit of a feel, you look at how many at-bats he’s tallied up last year combined with this year. There might be a guy out there in the country that’s a lead-off guy, like a Jackson Gray for Kentucky that leads off every game. He might have more at-bats in this one year than Blake does in his entire career, and on top of that he has four years on him age-wise. He’s learning, and he’s getting better as he goes.”
On Jared Dickey’s health, coaching first base
“Strange. But he liked it, and after a while, he started speaking up a little bit. Ricky (Martinez) was a warrior on the field, and that’s a good thing. As a coach, he’s done a tremendous job for us but he had like a 102-point-something fever. He needed to go home, and the rain delay basically allowed Woody (trainer Jeff Wood) a chance to say ‘go home.’ So Jared took over that role. He’s important to have around in the locker room, it’ll be the hotel this weekend, the field, and kind of being a part of things.
Whether he’s able to play or not – it’ll probably be the hitting that comes first before the defense. But I think there’s an opportunity where he could do something for us this weekend.”
On Zach Joyce
“That was great, you could hear it in the guy’s tone of their voices when they’re yelling from the dugout, I mean it’s impossible not to like that guy and his whole family really to be honest with you. Just good to see him out there, especially after a scare, it was a scare for everybody, and then when the information was there I think he was still scared and for good reason. I think all of us would be. Just for him to settle back in composure-wise and get out there and pitch was one thing. But to be able to pitch in some difficult situations, probably if it’s not so wet Zane (Denton) makes that play and he has basically a, I don’t want to say flawless, but a pretty dang good night. So all in all, great to see him out there, and also was good stuff.”
On his thoughts on the South Carolina series this weekend
“I think they’re playing right now and every SEC game is weighted the same and you’d like to make progress as the year goes on and I can’t speak for where they’re at with everything. They’ve had some really good wins. They go into Fayetteville and win a game which we were not able to. I think there’s no beating around the bush, we need to go on the road and play better overall. Or if you really want to look at it, I think we need to pick up where we left off with our trip down to Georgia and kind of replicate that same mentality and same effort and see where it gets us. Maybe pay attention to what are the one or two areas that all of us, including ourselves, can be a little bit better over the course of the weekend. Finals will be over for everyone— officially. I’ve kind of jumped the gun a little bit but by the time we get on that bus that will be the case. We’ll get in there and do our normal pre series practice that each of the teams do. We’ll just start a day earlier and the best way to try and win a series is to compete in the first game. They’re at home. It’s a tough place to play. I’m sure they expect to hold court or hold serve there. I don’t know where our guys’ mentality is besides they’re glad they won for their seniors tonight and they’re able to get out of here and packed up for tomorrow.”
On what the senior class means to him
“It’s a pretty cool group and a little more odd for our sport. Not that others don’t deal with a professional draft but for ours and ever since COVID you have a couple guys— I mean Ethan Payne is one that’s been around and a part of a lot of different things in this program. Then you have Griffin (Merritt) and Zane (Denton)— I don’t mean to select three of the six and leave anybody out but even in their short time they’ve created a lot of history. Griffin’s got a couple home runs that I’d like to think there’s a few places he can go and get a free meal or free whatever it is. I’ve got students over our dugout wanting me to go to Cool Beans. I’m not going there but maybe Griff shows up there and he gets some complimentary, NIL. I’m not trying to create any deals but that group has made their mark. We’ve had to make progress here in a bunch of different areas and it doesn’t happen with just one or two individuals and it’s certainly not going to happen for a coaching staff without getting help from the players. A special group. I’m glad they were able to get recognized and some of those guys had really good nights too.”
