Tony Vitello Presents Biggest Challenges Ahead of Super Regional for Tennessee Vols Baseball

Jonathan Williams | Jun 6, 2024

Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello points during a NCAA baseball game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Friday, April 12, 2024. Tennessee won 6-3 against LSU. / Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA

The No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers are set to host Evansville strating Friday night in Knoxville, Tennessee. Head baseball coach Tony Vitello spoke to the media and provided his thoughts on what the biggest challenges for the Volunteers may be.

Tony Vitello on the Biggest Challenges heading into Super Regional vs Evansville

“I think controlling the adrenaline and intensity of the whole deal. I think our crowd helps us a ton. You gotta get a little cautious though about getting too amped up and I think our guys handled it great. Again, to me being the second weekend in a row back home in a playoff environment should help our guys have a vision of what it looks like and how to handle it," Vitello said.

Hosting the regional or even super regional is not anything new to this baseball program, but Vitello would go on to provide examples of the crowd playing a role already in this tournament, and not always for the betterment of the Vols. "But to me, the one negative example from last weekend would be we’re in a position to finish or win the regional against a good team on Sunday night in Southern Miss. And our guys were a little too amped up about finish the job or whatever cliche you want to throw out there. And for about three or four innings there was a little too much tension. So whether it’s try hard or tension or too much adrenaline, those are things that come with the nature of it being a postseason game and playing at home in front of a juiced up crowd. So our guys need to enjoy it ’cause they’ve worked hard to get here and then they just need to play ball."

Other Tennessee News:

• Travis Smith Jr Sets Commitment Date
• George MacIntyre Accepts Invitation To Elite 11
• Josh Heupel Details Importance of 2022 Alabama Victory

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