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WATCH: Tony Vitello, Tennessee Players Preview Season Opening Weekend

By Ric Butler
- Feb 14, 2024

Baseball season is right around the corner, folks.

While it’s still a rainy and cold February in Knoxville right now, baseball season brings the promise of sunny weather, ballpark hot dogs, and fierce competition from a Tennessee team that is looking to get back to Omaha for the Men’s College World Series for the second straight year and the third time in the last four years.

The Vols will begin the season in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, TX, which will be played in the home of the defending World Series Champions Texas Rangers. The Vols have a trio of Big 12 opponents set for the weekend showdown, taking on Texas Tech on Friday night, Oklahoma on Saturday night, and Baylor on Sunday night.

Ahead of the Vols’ opening weekend, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with the media inside Neyland Stadium to give his final preseason thoughts before the Vols take off for the Lone Star State. Vitello spoke about Tennessee’s starting pitching rotation, his plan behind the plate, what he saw during training camp, and the overall perspective of what he wants to see out of his unit.

“Our guys need to act like pros,” Vitello said. “When they’re not at the park, at the park, they need to play the way ball fans want them to. We’ll see how the results go and it’s going to be hard to go on this trip and not at least get better regardless of what the results are because of the venue, the competition, the media attention and everything else.”

In addition to Vitello, Tennessee also had pitcher Zander Sechrist and outfielder Hunter Ensley speak with the media to give their thoughts on the team and their own roles as well.

Tennessee will open the season in Arlington, TX, at Globe Life Field this Friday night in a game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders.