The No. 1 overall seed Tennessee Volunteers find themselves in a serious hole on Saturday night. The Texas A&M Aggies have jumped out to a 7-2 advantage in the bottom of the fifth inning of their CWS Finals matchup in Omaha, Nebraska. And at the beginning of the bottom of the fifth, ESPN’s Kris Budden caught up with Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to hear his thoughts.
“Just not playing good ball. We’re kind of in the same spot. We had this same conversation against Florida State. You know, a couple of mistakes on defense. A couple of pitches that maybe needed to be thrown a little bit better. And offensively, it hasn’t been bad but we’re in a position where we could knock this guy out of the game (Ryan Prager), which would be a huge achievement. He’s their ace. And he’s pretty dang good. So, a little bit away from where we need to be,” Vitello explained.
It was his lineups third time in the order up against Prager. What does his team need to adjust offensively to get that done and get him out of the game? “I think just shorten up the swings. You know, he’ll mess with ya. It’s a slow, slow tempo and then he mixes it up a whole bunch. And if you overswing you’re gonna get yourself in trouble.”
Right on cue, Prager was benched in the bottom of the fifth inning. He was replaced by righty Josh Stewart. After four innings of work, Prager allowed eight hits and two runs, while firing six strikeouts. It will likely be his last game in a Texas A&M uniform.
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