Tennessee baseball opened its weekend series at Ole Miss with a thrilling 3-2 victory in Oxford on Friday night. Left-handed pitcher Liam Doyle was dominant in 8.1 innings of work while Tennessee hung on to strand a pair on base in the ninth inning to secure the win.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello discussed Doyle’s dominant outing, responding to a series loss la and much more. Here’s everything Vitello said.
More From RTI: Liam Doyle Dominates In Return To Ole Miss As Tennessee Baseball Takes Series Opener
On what he saw from Liam Doyle
“There’s obviously a progression that he’s making and there’s a storyline behind it with him being here. You could see maybe a little bit of extra passion but it was controlled. And so, what I was originally going to talk about was the progression he’s making as a starting pitcher. I think he got a few starts as a freshman, last year started here and he’s still trying to find a way to be the best version of himself because unfortunately as a starter it’s a marathon not a sprint. You’re up and down and he’s not built like that. He’s an extreme competitor so, again, the extra focus or whatever it was helped him control that emotion and passion. Maybe there was extra but to be honest with you, he’s always got that to him. Maybe a little added focus, teammates helped him out behind him, but he was a Friday night SEC guy tonight. Their guy wasn’t at his best but you saw (Mason) Morris come in and he’s a Friday SEC guy too.”
On what he said to Doyle when he pulled him from the game in the ninth inning
“I think you want the guy to basically die on the vine out there. He took ownership of the game and you hate to take him out of the game and something goes awry but you got to trust your teammates and they’ve done a good job for him in extended relief earlier in the year, up until now. But he went so deep into the game that it was what our vision was, it would have been nice to get it done one lefty earlier but (for) Snead and Loy to help him out and we’ll take a win anyway we can get it but the fact that he did save our bullpen and those guys had shortened work is nice. But, again, we’ll take it any way we can get it.”
On what he liked about responding from the poor doubleheader against Texas A&M, handling the environment
“All that is added to it and this has always been a great place. Each place is a little different but now we’ve been on the road three different times. Some parks with a lot of history in it. New history going to Alabama’s park and that was rowdy down there. Tough competition. Extra curricular activity. So they’ve kind of seen it and know who they are so it’s kind of the one thing we can control is how we are as a group on Thursday night in our practice. And there was some stuff that went on with that (Ole Miss didn’t tarp the field leaving puddles on the infield dirt), and then how they come out today. The scoreboard makes it easy to high-five one another but i just like the way they’re making progress, like Liam as far as how they are as a team.”
On how nice it was to have Gavin Kilen back in the lineup
“Yeah, it’s nice having him in there, and you don’t know when the right time is, and we thought it was going to be another time, a little setback, and maybe could have been a little more aggressive, but, you know, he can run faster than he was doing. We’re yelling at him from all corners, you know, to just kind of keep it under control till it’s really needed. But just to have him in there in the lineup, writing that actually in there, was a good feeling, for sure.
“But it also means a guy like Jay (Abernathy) is on the sideline, and Newy (Chris Newstrom) was sick tonight, otherwise he would have got playing time. So there’s other guys that are available, but obviously it’s nice to have him in there.”
On what’s allowed Liam Doyle to be more consistent at Tennessee than he was at Ole Miss
“I think body control is big. I don’t think a lot of young kids understand that. You know, you got a Brandon Finnegan was a really good left-handed pitcher that Coach (Josh) Elander caught as a catcher, and I got to coach or recruit Brandon, whatever it was. Brandon had a big old left-handed arm attached to a body that wasn’t ready to control it yet. So command has a lot to do with a lot of things. It’s getting with Coach (Frank) Anderson. It’s getting your off-speed pitches better, and all those things have occurred. But I think he’s really taking pride in his body, not just physique, but strength and core strength, and taking care of it, and it’s giving him better body control.”
On how he felt Doyle handled his emotions
“He was great. I mean, there’s still the fourth inning or whatever. He wasn’t even looking, but the guy at third base was coming down the line, so they end up kind of nose to nose. And I wanted to punch Liam in the nose, because, you know, nowadays, every pitcher — I mean, we had one guy that struck a lot of guys out in our conference, but he basically pimped every strikeout he ever had. So, I mean, that’s kind of part of the game, to an extent, but I think that one kind of happened organically.
“So there’s always going to be a moment when Liam’s pitching, where a comment is made in the dugout to keep playing baseball, but for the most part, you don’t want to quell or squash a kid’s passion, because that’s all he’s really got going on. I can’t speak for anybody else, but I gotta believe anyone that came across him in this town as a teammate or just a person, he’s too lovable when he’s not inside the lines, and then when he’s in the lines, he’s a little devil. Like I said, even we got to keep our control on him a little.”
On the conversation with Nate Sneed in the ninth inning
“Well, he wanted to stay out there. I get it. I’m not a big fan of pre-scripting stuff, but we kind of saw something that was there and what we wanted to do. Dude, all you got to do is look at last year and this year to know how much I trust Nate. But, you know, we got a close enough relationship that he can pretty much say about whatever he wants to me, and I can say whatever back. And really, we’re just talking through it, because I don’t think he expected after recording a quick out, for me to be out there, but that was the way we decided to play it. I’m willing to bet Nate could have got the job done. It’s good that Dylan (Loy) got the job.”
On Dylan Loy getting the final out of the ninth inning after walking the first batter he faced to put a pair of runners on base
“He wasn’t throwing the ball as well as he can, and we’ve had little moments where he doesn’t look like himself, but he always competes. And I’m anxious to see him back out there again, because the last few times leading up to this, he’s been really crisp. But tonight he wasn’t crisp. He just did enough to get the job done. I think, you know, had a little bit of grit and a little bit of guts to it, which is interesting because we ended the game with him not throwing the ball as well as he can, but kind of gutting his way through it. And the last time we played an SEC game, we didn’t have nearly enough of any of those characteristics. So it’s good to see.”
On where Liam Doyle’s performance against Ole Miss ranks amongst the ones he’s seen during his time as a coach
“It’s pretty special, for sure. In the big 12, back in the day, when I was coaching there, and then this, it was the stuff you’d see out of a guy like Max Scherzer, or there was a guy named John Stilson at A&M. I mean, it was one that you remember for a long time. And unfortunately, it wasn’t one where you could have a rocking chair over there in the corner and just feel good about it. Every pitch mattered and maybe that makes it even a little more special.”
