Tony Vitello couldn’t have been happier with Christian Moore’s development at Tennessee and it was on display Friday night.
He went five-for-six, with four runs scored and hit a solo home run. Not bad for a wild 12-11 victory over Florida State.
Simply out, Moore just wants it.
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“Wants to win as bad as anyone I’ve ever been around,” Vitello said. “And the umpires, we talked about that, there, Grady, the home plate umpire was really good to me because he let me come out, speak my mind, kind of talk about some things. He let me know what was going on on the field.
“And the one guy we were talking about back and forth was C-Mo. And I was pleading a particular case, that guy wants to win as anybody on the field. I don’t know how you define that, but that’s what makes his motor go. He’s not going so good when he’s not in that mode and he’s worrying about other things.”
Christian Moore developed into a star
Moore had to work to get where he is now. Vitello mentioned development was key.
“To answer your question, his development has come,” Vitello said. “he’s matured a lot on and off the field where he gets into that spot more often and doesn’t let a bump in the road set him off or a poor game set him off in another direction. And it’s been nice to see that development.
“Blake Burke and he are two guys — Chris Burke was talking about it before the game, fun story: Two different sides of the country, two totally different ways to do it, but they’ve both matured in so many different ways. And they’re pros, they’re ready to be pros. I just hope it’s not for a while.”
To even get Moore to campus during his recruiting process, it took a lot of effort from Vitello and crew
“Our staff did a good job recruiting him,” Vitello said. “I played a very small part. As a matter of fact, I went to one game in the middle of nowhere in Georgia, and he didn’t say hi to me. I don’t know if he knew it was me or not. I tease him about that all the time. He was pitching in that game. He was a pitcher, an athletic infielder that we recruited, and I mentioned earlier to ESPN folks, we didn’t think he was coming to school.
“He had to turn down really good money in order to come. I was going to save this for later, but I think he’s kind of battling a little bit of the reputation that people throw around right now from others that we dealt with three years ago. We had some concepts there that not a guy that says no to good money and wants to play team ball and things like that. We knew right away, once he was on campus, we were wrong. But we also had to do some things to, again, like any freshman needed to mature, and he’s gotten to that point right now. So it’s fun to watch.”
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