Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with the media on Wednesday afternoon in Knoxville as the Vols prepare to host the Evansville Purple Aces in this weekend’s Knoxville Super Regional. Both teams will square off in a best-of-three series with a coveted spot in the Men’s College World Series on the line.
Vitello and the Vols enter the tournament on a hot streak coming off of a co-SEC regular season championship, an SEC Tournament championship, and a +21 run differential sweep of the Knoxville Regional. Tennessee is the number one overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and has been blazing a scorching path behind power hitting and a top three ERA on the mound.
Evansville, on the other hand, is a different type of Cinderella story. The Purple Aces are a more sustained Cinderella, as if the movie series had gone on for a few strong sequels. Evansville is a Cinderella due to their very low seed in the tournament but didn’t get to the Knoxville Super Regional by luckily winning one game last weekend.
The Purple Aces finished second in the Missouri Valley Conference and then upset Indiana State for the MVC Tournament Championship. Evansville then went into the Greenville Regional and took down No. 16 East Carolina, VCU, and Wake Forest to advance to the second weekend of the tournament.
Evansville’s seeding puts them squarely in the Cinderella category but their sustained play over the last few weeks makes them a different animal than your average, say, March Madness underdog story.
Vitello gave his thoughts on Evansville on Wednesday and spoke about Tennessee’s routine this week with the Friday start, his thoughts on the game times, the latest injury status for some of Tennessee’s players, and much more.
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Check out Tony Vitello’s full Wednesday interview below:
Tennessee HC Tony Vitello Previews the Super Regionals
Tennessee will host Evansville in the first game of the Knoxville Super Regional at 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live updates and coverage.
