{"id":53319,"date":"2024-05-26T02:35:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-26T07:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=53319"},"modified":"2024-05-26T02:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-26T07:35:12","slug":"everything-tony-vitello-players-said-on-a-6-4-win-over-vanderbilt-in-sec-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/everything-tony-vitello-players-said-on-a-6-4-win-over-vanderbilt-in-sec-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Tony Vitello, players, said on a 6-4 win over Vanderbilt in SEC Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee got its revenge over Vanderbilt on Saturday in the semifinal round of the 2024 Southeastern Conference baseball Tournament, topping the Commodores by a score of 6-4<\/a>. Vols coach Tony Vitello met with members of the media shortly afterwards to discuss the ballgame. <\/p>\n

Pitcher Zander Sechrist and second baseman Christian Moore also joined Vitello in the postgame press conference<\/a>. The following is a written transcript of all three. <\/p>\n

Tony Vitello Transcript <\/strong><\/h2>\n

TONY VITELLO: Obviously if you\u2019re fortunate enough to get to this portion of the tournament, pitching is at a premium, as is energy level and stuff like that. You just got to grit it out, and our team followed Zander\u2019s lead today. So we were blessed to have him out there and he pretty much kind of in the Beam category can know what to expect, but I think he was even better tonight and kind of built off of last time out. So it was good the team followed him.<\/p>\n

And then Chris Burke and I were talking, and some other guys, too, chimed in. If you don\u2019t think you got it perfectly lined up, that means someone has got to \u2014 I hesitate to say elevate, but be the best version of themselves or at least be true to themselves, and Peebles certainly was that, as was Bargo, but Marcus Phillips is the one I\u2019m getting at.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s from the Dakotas and he hasn\u2019t played a whole lot. He\u2019s working on presence and confidence and self-belief and probably \u2014 or definitely did overdo it in that one situation where he got out of the bases-loaded jam, but I don\u2019t think anybody can take away from him how he was throwing the ball tonight, and ultimately, that helped us keep a lead against a team that was swinging it as good as anybody in the tournament, I think.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0What was different for Phillips tonight compared to Wednesday?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: I think just the conviction. You can kind of see it when he\u2019s steering it in there. It\u2019s been pretty cool that as long as it was official, I think that makes in seven years nine guys that have thrown a hundred or \u2014 it\u2019s a pretty good stat, whatever it is. But that\u2019s never been Frank\u2019s emphasis and it certainly isn\u2019t mine. But with him in particular, the harder he throws the better he throws because he\u2019s so big and strong and the stuff is so good. But you can kind of see when he\u2019s guiding it in there as opposed to letting it rip. It can come for different pitchers too. Obviously Zander\u2019s stuff is different, but the way I heard him describe it was the last time he faced this team he was kind of guiding some pitches in. They end up bleeding over the middle of the plate, and tonight they got into some balls, we played good defense behind him. But you could see it from the get-go that it was coming out of his hand with conviction, which at the end of the day, that\u2019s what being a competitor is, is put your best stuff or your best approach out on the field and just see where it gets you.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0I believe you played 12 of 14 SEC schools this year. In my mind, that qualifies you as an expert on this conference. So, in your expert opinion, does the SEC deserve 11 teams in a tournament, which would be a record, and six host sites, considering that this is the top college RPI conference in the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: I think the host sites is a definite yes because if you look at the way those rosters are stacked up and the fan bases they\u2019re going to have, it\u2019s better for college baseball, and they have earned it by surviving this league.<\/p>\n

Then I think it is a unique year. It\u2019s going to be an interesting deal when we add Texas and Oklahoma next year. But for this year in particular, there are 11 teams that have shown \u2014 and part of it was some guys \u2014 I think you all voiced your opinion, that they needed to show well here and I think it went that way. So I think you kind of have the maximum amount of teams that we would have.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m stealing a quote from a video coordinator of ours, so if anyone doesn\u2019t like it, it\u2019s not my fault, but just compare. I\u2019m not in that room, but if you\u2019re sitting there, compare those teams you\u2019re talking about to the other options and the schedule they have played and the talent they have on the roster, and I\u2019m willing to bet all those 11 teams are better than the other options.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0With Marcus, why did you choose to stay with him with the bases loaded there in the 8th and then again when two guys got on in the 9th?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: Tough one to answer other than just gut feel. I mean, there was \u2014 you know, we had Loy down there hot and he was \u2014 it was a couple times. And he was even told, You\u2019re going to get this guy, and then we just stuck with him, and part of it is just communication with Frank, and a lot of times you just got to go with your gut. But I like it better in the corner when Coach Elander speaks up from a catcher\u2019s point of view and what he\u2019s seeing. It\u2019s a little easier when you\u2019re in that spot because you\u2019re not so emotional and you\u2019re not stressing, well, what if I make the wrong decision and what if not.<\/p>\n

And then Frank\u2019s feedback is outstanding because he\u2019s the one calling pitches. We\u2019ve probably done that more this year than ever by nature of our staff where we\u2019ve just kind of communicated and made a group decision. He certainly made it difficult to take him out after that first inning, but there were some dicey moments in there where obviously we\u2019re glad we stuck with him. He grew up a lot today. It was good.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019re focused on making sure your team is prepared for next weekend and beyond, but third title tournament in four years, is there any bit of you that\u2019s able to take a moment and reflect and appreciate that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: Not really. There\u2019s been so much emotion poured out there the last two nights, and we\u2019ve kind of finished later at night. Then you\u2019re preparing for the next day because it comes pretty quick. This was a little quicker turnaround, it will be even quicker tomorrow. It\u2019s a fun game to be a part of. The fan situation is insane. LSU, I think we know what they will be cooking out there in the parking lot. I wish I had time to have some of it. But you know what their fan base will be like. I think our folks do a great job. The National Anthem is always, it gives me chills at this thing. So I think it will be a good final and everyone will kind of have to piece together the pitching, but it\u2019s hard to worry about anything other than tomorrow. We\u2019ll get our guys ready, I mean, you bring up \u2014 I go on a dang tangent with you here \u2014 but when you get into the postseason there\u2019s good teams and one team wins and the other team doesn\u2019t. So, I think the fatigue thing can be beaten to death a little bit. At least I know from my experience with a couple of the teams that I\u2019ve been a part of, only once can I remember where I think it was really an issue. And that was an Arkansas team that really didn\u2019t get home until Tuesday, and then we played a game until 3:30 a.m. because of the rain, and I mean the regional was just a hot mess. And we also had Oral Roberts as a four seed, which, if you guys are interested, I know at least one guy will be interested in here, do a little research on when Oral Roberts is your four seed how it goes, because they\u2019re not a four seed, but they\u2019re a four seed, so do research on that deal there. So, other times it just, you get beat. Everybody\u2019s a little tired and everyone\u2019s logged a bunch of innings and stuff like that. We\u2019re blessed to be in the final, sure, I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some teams at home getting a little extra rest, but when next week starts, by then, everybody should be pretty juiced up and pretty fresh, and it will be a matter of how do you do on that given day. I think one thing that will benefit us regardless of how tomorrow goes is we\u2019ve spaced out our pitching pretty well. Yesterday I talked about how willing our staff is. Kirby was not on the list, I said if you want, you can face Hines. He said, I\u2019ll be good to go. I want to face more than that. And Snead was not on the list, and he came to me before the game and said, I want to pitch today. Those are the two guys that finished the game. I think that kind of represents how we\u2019ve been able to piece that pitching together.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0You faced LSU earlier in the season. You swept them at home, but they seem to be on a different level here. How do you feel like what you scouted for earlier in the season prepares you for tomorrow?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: Yeah, they\u2019re different. You will look at it and reflect on it, but I don\u2019t think \u2014 I don\u2019t know what they will have, I don\u2019t know that we\u2019ll have the benefit of worrying too much about matchups from the pitching end of things. These guys see so many good arms, it\u2019s funny, in the dugout it\u2019s, like, Don\u2019t you remember facing guy, and more times than not they don\u2019t. Blake Burke said it the other day, I wish I had a good memory. But their job isn\u2019t to study these guys, it\u2019s just to go play. That\u2019s kind of what this time of year is anyway. The scouting report stuff helps and there might be split second decisions that need to be made, but the athletes will determine it out on the field. The one thing about playing them tomorrow is they had some people travel with \u2019em but it will be 50\/50 or 40\/40 with 20 percent of other people in here. They will have their fans with \u2019em, which I think helps them in this tournament and other tournaments, but also they are a different team, they\u2019re playing better right now and have found themselves a little bit, which is good.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0You anticipate Russell throwing tomorrow and who are some other guys that could potentially pitch?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: Yeah, we talked about let\u2019s not push it today. He kind of flirted back and forth with it, and then at the worst we talked about either Monday or Tuesday facing hitters. We\u2019re past the point of throwing a bullpen to prepare, so he\u2019s ready for next Friday, that\u2019s the goal. We\u2019ll focus on whatever he\u2019s got to do to be ready for next Friday. Maybe it will be a conversation with him in the morning or even after he plays catch. So were you just talking about the other pitchers?<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, what other guys are available?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: We\u2019ll use a couple guys and then we\u2019ll probably go to you, to be honest with you. Or, you know, who knows, Christian Moore thinks he\u2019s available \u2014 he\u2019s not \u2014 but there\u2019s a couple position guys that could be called on and, hey, we\u2019ll approach it as intelligently as we see fit, it would be disrespectful to not put your best foot forward, but at the same time I don\u2019t think we\u2019re looking to gas anybody out tomorrow that\u2019s already put in good work for us in this tournament and got us to this point. So some guys will have to look at Mr. Andrew Behnke and Marcus Phillips and say, I can do that as well.<\/p>\n

Christian Moore & Zander Sechrist Transcript <\/h2>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Zander, you talked last week after your start in the regular season about how disappointed you were following your start against Vanderbilt in Nashville. Does that make today a little more special for you and what was different about today compared to that start in Nashville?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: Yeah, I would say obviously it\u2019s a little different going six innings compared to two, but it was just getting back to work and looking at film, comparing it to last time I faced them, and like I said \u2014 I think I told media earlier, I was cutting the ball over the middle and just missing my spot. I wasn\u2019t doing that, fortunately, tonight, so obviously it showed.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0What was it like seeing what Marcus did today, just with the presence, but also with the stuff that he was able to show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHRISTIAN MOORE: It was definitely cool. That\u2019s something that we\u2019ve been waiting for for the whole season, for him to come out there and just do him and throw 98 and be that guy for us. He did it tonight and we\u2019re so grateful for him.<\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: Yeah, it was good to see that and obviously he\u2019s still growing as a young guy. He\u2019s got \u2014 hey, he\u2019s got good presence. I\u2019m not going to lie. He\u2019s got good presence. But obviously being, like, new to the SEC, he\u2019ll work on a lot more stuff, but it was great to see that tonight.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Zander, do you feel like it was kind of the same things that led to you having success last week that carried over to a good outing today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: Yeah, just kind of teach every outing the same. I don\u2019t try to have two \u2014 be too high or be too low. I kind of just stay even-keel. If it goes my way, it goes my way. If it doesn\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t. But at the same time, at the end of the day, I\u2019ll still be the same person.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Zander, Tony said yesterday you might have been mad in the pen because you got quite hot but never got to the field. How much did that fuel you today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: Well, to be honest, I was never mad. I kind of knew the plan going into the game, and I kind of knew the plan after the game, so I guess you can say, sure, we\u2019ll just say I was super mad and that really fueled the fire tonight.<\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: AirPods, AirPods.<\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: And then the AirPods.<\/p>\n

TONY VITELLO: I found \u2019em.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Zander, how nice was it to have that outfield behind you tracking fly balls, especially in this bigger ballpark?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: Yeah, playing, I guess, in front of them, because they\u2019re behind me, but it\u2019s great to have a defense, especially a guy like Christian Moore too \u2014 he made a few plays tonight, and just all around the defense played very good and I can\u2019t be more happy than getting quick outs.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0You were quite vocal cheering on Marcus Phillips when he was on the mound. What\u2019s your connection with him and what encouraged you to be so vocal in your cheers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHRISTIAN MOORE: We\u2019re next door neighbors, so I see him a lot and just I know it\u2019s tough to be in that situation. You know, your first time being on a big stage like this and a bunch of noise and crowd and you got their dugout hyped. So trying to be a good friend, a good teammate, just being in his ear, just trying to reel him back in to just throw strikes and be confident.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Zander, with Cannon out, I imagine this hasn\u2019t been the season he expected, but what have you seen from him throughout the season and the way he carried himself and maybe what\u2019s led up to him to have a nice week here in Hoover and a nice game today to help y\u2019all get to the championship game?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ZANDER SECHRIST: Yeah, he\u2019s still the same guy every day. He works very hard. He just puts his head down and grinds. Obviously for him to have a game like this, you know, being back there blocking up balls and framing pitches for strikes, I mean, it was good to see and obviously it gave Cal a little rest.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s good to have depth in that position and obviously Peebs is a great player and he\u2019s had his up and downs, but it\u2019s good to see him get a multi-hit tonight.<\/p>\n

Q.<\/strong>\u00a0Christian, Tim Corbin was talking about how difficult it is for opposing pitchers to have you and then Blake Burke kind of leading the charge. How dangerous do you think the combo of you and Burke are?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHRISTIAN MOORE: I think he said it right there. With me and Burke, I think we go back to freshman year hitting back-to-back. We did it last year a little bit. But I think it\u2019s something they got to prep for and I\u2019m glad that Burke\u2019s on our team.<\/p>\n

The post Everything Tony Vitello, players, said on a 6-4 win over Vanderbilt in SEC Tournament<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee got its revenge over Vanderbilt on Saturday in the semifinal round of the 2024…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53342,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53319\/revisions\/53342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}