Tennessee baseball’s offense exploded in a 15-5 victory over Kansas State on Tuesday night. The Wildcats were already Tennessee’s greatest midweek test of the season and it became even greater when they threw their ace.
Following the win, Vitello discussed Dean Curley’s big game, how they handled the pitching staff and much more. Here’s everything Vitello said.
More From RTI: How Tennessee Baseball Got The Job Done Against Kansas State
On if he’s ever seen a freshman do what Dean Curley did
“I don’t think so. I know when Evan Russell did it, it was pretty special. He was good. It would have been nice to see him run out the ball he hit down the third base line in his first at-bat. I think he was trying to sell that it went off his foot. I hope – I didn’t ask him. I’m glad I didn’t ask him because he didn’t need to come out of the game. Probably the rain there at the end probably cost him a foot. Would have made it fun. As he gets older, he will like that he did what he did tonight, but I think he’ll appreciate the win more. It was a pretty good win. I think we were fortunate enough to play well. It was kind of like a DJ Khaled song, is what I said to somebody in there. It was a great win like it was a great song but when that guy chimes in, it kind of ruins the song. We had a couple of goofy things in that game that we’d like to erase. Overall, I think Dean will appreciate that it was a win. We are fortunate because they are here playing us because they wanted to be in a regional last year. Maybe deserved it – I’m not on the committee. But I don’t think they’ll have that issue this year, so it was a good win for our team.”
On Dean Curley’s swing
“He’s just strong. And he was in here in the cage today and some guys and I jumped in on the fun and were joking that his swing looked really good but he doesn’t look tough anymore. We were joking about the black eye and the swelling has almost gone away. He’s a handsome fella according to other people. The swing looked good and he looks good. He’s strong. There’s not a lot of extra rift-raft going on there. That’s something we spend a lot of time doing. Guys like Jared Dickey and KT [Kavares Tears] have worked really hard in these cages, especially with Coach [Josh] Elander, cutting out the fat when they first get here – or the extra movements in their swing. Since we’ve inherited him, Dean has always had a very compact, repeatable – a very polished swing.”
On coming back against a good midweek team
“Bigger name I think is fair to say. They threw their guy at us – their ace at us. The guy is going to get plenty of outs and he made some of our guys look foolish at times. We just did a good job of coming back but also putting together some good at-bats against him. Because of what started either last night or this morning, they were excited about the opportunity to compete today. I think they have been that way about every game, to be honest with you. The problem is, if you have lulls creep in, you’ll get exposed. I can reflect back, [UNC] Asheville is a lot better. They are good and threw a lot of strikes against us. East Tennessee State has always played very well against us. If you have those lulls, you’ll get exposed. Our group is talented enough that if they come with approach that they had at the park today – there’s this stuff we have been dying for like extra leadership, extra communication and guys coming to me forward with things. Just communicating. We let them kind of run with it. Just some things that were positive in the hallways. I think the percentages will tilt in our favor a little bit.”
On getting that type of communication
“I think some hard lessons learned. Maybe in the past. There were some winning teams last year in the end, the postseason where you guys might hit on this, this or this but in the offices we are like, the core of that team is guys who have learned hard lessons and good lessons and kind of formulated the deal. Anyway, that’s a personnel tangent we’ve talked about up there. For our team in particular, you got a guy like Blake Burke and Christian Moore who watched Trey Lipscomb every day. They know exactly what to do. Whether they want to do it or not is up to them. If they take responsibility and there’s others too like Cal [Stark], Chuck [Taylor] – if they take ownership for what they need to do, then they can move on to the next best thing and make sure the other guys are doing that too. Guys like KT and Hunter Ensley, I think saw what works and what doesn’t work the last two or three years. They want this year to be a good year and they are kind of pressing the buttons they should be.”
On what he saw from Nate Snead
“He was good. And just at the start I don’t know if you’d ask about Combsy (Aaron Combs), but the top of the order is a mess if you’re a pitcher. You have a kid that’s from the state of Tennessee in (Brendan) Jones who is a really good player and he’s got a lot of experience and can really run and so he just stayed on a breaking ball against Combsy and then you have one of the most electric players in the country and I’m not knocking (Kaelen) Culpepper, he’s going to get his money this summer but the guy after him might be more dangerous. And so that guy comes through with a laser for two RBIs. So the fact that Snead could keep it together and kind of get through those guys and, again, Combs could keep it together and you could even say Loy who’s a freshman— it’s tough to end the game in that situation and kind of keep it together is something that might get lost in the score. That all three guys kind of battled through but because Snead had a little more success he kind of won that race between he and Combs where we were trying to build both those guys pitch count to about 60 pitches. Combs kind of ran through some pitches quicker then Snead did but both of them pieced it together for us and did a nice job.”
On Ariel Antigua’s debut, what he can and can’t do right now
“He can’t swing at all so we weren’t going to have him baserun either because he could potentially injure that thing (thumb). It’s basically full use on defense and I just don’t want to put him in a position where he’s asked to play defense with the game on the line because he is such a good defender that we may use him in that situation and it’s his first go around. He’s not a kid that gets nervous but also a little bit of it was, even though the kid is a goofball, he probably loves being out there as much as anybody and the guys love him so we kind of saw it as a reward. Trust me, we’re trying to win the game. He’s a good shortstop but it’s kind of a cool thing for the team that they came together, again, they came to the park with a great approach today and because they played that well I think it was one thing that helped them get in the game but he’s also going to be in the game with the money on the line, so to speak.”
On Hunter Ensley hitting the ball hard a couple times
“Two strike hit-by pitch. Well, I would stand in there because I was just trying to get on base but i don’t know if many guys don’t move their feet with the way that the kid, with Owen throwing the ball the way he does but Ensley stayed in there and got the thing going early too with the hit-by pitch. So, yeah, he’s really what we want in center field. Great communicator. Not afraid of the wall. Can do all things well out there and then at the plate we talked the last time we were in here about fighting and he kind of fought his way on and tomahawk’d the one pitch for the ball to right-center so it was good for him to get that whole rally going there.”
On the home runs Billy Amick and Christian Moore hit
“Billy’s was crazy. He stayed to the ball, whereas that’s one where the average hitter typically pulls off. But just extra staying to the ball means you usually lace it to the first baseman like he did (in a previous at-bat), but to hit it that high and that far, is a tribute to how strong he is and how much bat-speed he has. He’s a big guy and that was the first thing — you know, when I met Todd Helton, he’s just a big dude. And Jermaine Dye was at the park today. Some of our guys had to get educated on who he is. They definitely need to know who he is. That’s a big guy and Billy is just a big person and he’s really made himself into a strong guy. And C-Mo has always been that.
“The home runs are great, but to me, I love Blake Burke’s at-bat more than anything. The fact he’s now kind of copying Kavares Tears and going from one foul pole to the other is pretty dangerous. I know he went home — that second at-bat (double to left) was probably his favorite and my favorite. Thank you to the fans that stuck it out in the rain. I thought we would have a huge crowd tonight, but weather wasn’t good. And we got one guy in there that is chirpin’ at one of our players, which is rare. That’s not rare in the SEC, but it’s rare here and I heard it and Blake heard it, too. That guy probably helped Blake in his next at-bat, not that we wanted him to, but he took that motivation into that second (at-bat) and drove that thing into left field for good reason. I’ve never seen that guy before, so I don’t think he’s a loyal fan. Not worried about that. I saw him over there sippin’ on his beer, and I can’t do it now in Knoxville anymore, but I’ve been to a bar or two and that ain’t a guy I’d hang out with and have a beverage with.”
On Curley having six homers, a triple and a single to make up his eight career hits
“I think his approach in (batting practice) is really polished and it’s kind of a pro-approach where he’s looking to backspin the ball. For the balls that he’s made contact with, if he does backspin it, it comes off differently than it would for — we could pick out another hitter. It’s really a different level of strength that helps him get that carry on that ball. I mean, he’s hit some low, low line drives that will go out of the park, even to dead center. It’ll even out and he’ll probably have a little bit more of a regular or natural balance to his numbers. I think the one crazy thing for him is that he’s put up good numbers so far and he doesn’t even have as many at-bats as others because of having some soreness.”
On Dylan Dreiling’s two-run homer in the second inning to tie the game
“Yeah, we do have a little bit of a challenge making out the lineup every day. You get to the fact that we’re playing a team from Kansas and Dylan is from Kansas, you gotta at least have him out there even though (Kansas State starting LHP Owen Boerema) is throwing from way over here and it worked out in our favor, but the first two — you know, I brought up the sour thoughts about Burke’s first at-bat and KT’s first at-bat. Those guys didn’t look good. And I wouldn’t want to stand in there left-handed against that guy. So the fact he followed that up and hit it to the deepest part of the park is pretty wild. He’s a guy that’s pretty explosive and kind of seems to have a flare for the dramatic, too. I don’t know if that’s because he kind of seems to be pretty stoic and doesn’t get nervous, or maybe he’s a guy that gets excited about things and just doesn’t wear it on his sleeve as much as some of the other guys we’ve had, but we’re blessed to have him because he can do it any moment.”
