The Tennessee Volunteers are heading to the College World Series championship series for the first time under head coach Tony Vitello. It’s an accomplishment Vitello knows that he couldn’t have accomplished without several players growing into pivotal pieces.
Vitello praised several of those players following Tennessee’s win over Florida State. That included Blake Burke and starting pitcher Zander Sechrist.
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“I think when — Blake mentioned he’s made some mistakes on a particular play,” Tony Vitello said. “And he bounces back. And I wanted to answer for him there. The homer came after an at-bat where he had a guy at third base and one out. And that’s pretty dang good spot for Blake Burke to be in.”
Blake Burke had a massive performance against the Seminoles, going three for five with a pair of RBIs and a home run. For Tony Vitello, he was able to do that while Florida State pitched its best as a team against him.
“Having said that, if you go back, [Brennen] Oxford might have thrown his very best three pitches all in one at-bat to Blake,” Vitello said. “But to me I think he hit the ball so hard the next AB because he was determined to have a bounce-back at-bat.”
On the mound, Tony Vitello turned to Zander Sechrist. He ended up pitching 6.1 innings while striking out three and only allowing two earned runs. In many ways, that was the culmination of his growth as a player while at Tennessee.
“And I think Zander being frustrated with me a couple different times where he came out of the game earlier than he should have, again, you bow up,” Vitello said. I’ve never had a day in my life where Zander is anywhere close to being disrespectful to me, but there’s a way you do it on the field where you show this is what I can do. And the old actions speak louder than words.”
Sechrist and Burke aren’t alone in this regard on Tennessee’s roster. There were several other players who Vitello brought up too, pointing to how they helped get the Volunteers to the CWS championship series.
“I think there’s many examples with this team. I mentioned it with [Kavares Tears‘] defense, too, where if it doesn’t go as well as the guys want — Nate Snead was not in the top five or six guys in the fall. He was very unhappy. He showed it on his face. We talked about it, and he went to work,” Vitello said.
“And I think that’s a big part of where we’re at right now.”
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