Tennessee baseball head coach met with the media in Columbia, South Carolina to share his thoughts on the Vols’ 7-2 series-sweeping win over the Gamecocks.
Vitello discussed how his team weathered the storm after a slow start, how hard it is to sweep a conference foe on the road, Ariel Antigua and the freshman duo of Tegan Kuhns and Brayden Krenzel.
See a full transcript of everything Vitello said after the game below.
On weathering the storm after slow start…
“Not the fastest start because [Matthew] Becker was good. He’s been good before. I think his first SEC outing might have been against us a long time ago. He was really good and he was really good now – especially when that breaking ball is on. Kind of had to weather the storm. We had a fan in the stands that did not think out guys were awake. If you were around our guys in the hotel and in pregame, today might have been the best day energy wise despite the quick turnaround. Beth [Schwartz] and Q [Quentin Eberhardt] have a lot to do with that. They played a full nine innings, and it was impressive – especially being led by the two freshmen.”
On sweeping on the road in SEC play and how hard it is to do that…
“Every coach in our league would appreciate it you relayed that message to every fan in our league. It’s great to cheer for it, but first of all, you can’t win the third game until you win the second. It happens, but if you are going to look at baseball in terms of percentages – if you look at the numbers. It’s such a huge thing to be able to do that anywhere, especially on the road.”
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On Ariel Antigua defensively…
“Yeah, we have been having some conversations in the dugout He does the opposite of what is scrutinized – he don’t smack talk the other team. He smack talks the other players on our team and the coaches, which is absurd. I guess you can do what you want to do when you are making plays like that. He’s been outstanding for us defensively and Manny [Marin] was too. I think both of those guys were frustrated with their at-bats, but they have to realize you win with defense and pitching and offense complements it.”
On the freshmen duo of Tegan Kuhns and Brayden Krenzel…
“I thought it didn’t start well for Tegan. He was just missing with some pitches and it wasn’t as quite the hot start he had against Alabama. So, we got to see him in a different element where he was really challenged. In high school, that’s where he was at his best. But this is a different level. He kind of maintained what his strengths have been in the past which is staying composed and almost kicking it p a notch when he got in trouble. So, Krenzel was great – but Tegan really set the tone for the day.”
