Sometimes, teams just lose.
Sixty-four teams entered the postseason slate ready to advance to Omaha. Only eight teams get to do that, and only one gets the trophy at the end of the line.
Tennessee baseball lost, but so will 62 other teams. The best team in the country every year has lost dating back to 1999 when Miami won the whole thing. The past three seasons, the No. 1 overall seed has failed to even reach the middle of America.
Granted, it felt like Tennessee was different. The Vols fought and crawled out of every deficit they found themselves in, but usually weren’t even in that position at all. The Vols throttled most teams they faced this year.
So, does anything have to be done to adjust? Should Vitello change his approach? Should the Vols keep embracing its villain role, even if it may have cost them in the end with the ejection of Drew Gilbert and Frank Anderson in Game One?
It’s easy to argue both sides from the couch. Tennessee got to where it was because of that bravado. It won 57 games, led the country in plenty of statistical categories and bat flipped its way through all of it. Censoring that approach may be more of a negative than a positive for Tennessee and all of its momentum into next season.
SEC play-by-play commentator Tom Hart agrees. It’s how Vitello and company react that will matter for next season.
“I don’t know if you do (change things),” Hart told Off The Hook Sports. “ I don’t know if you need to. I got a text from an agent that’s been around the game for a long time after the game yesterday and he said, just a reminder, there are two types of baseball players: Those who have been humbled and those who have yet to be humbled.”
“It is a humbling game and it is a game of failure. If you can have that swagger and continue it even after moments of failure, that’s fine. The question is, is the swagger real, is it fake?”
Being humbled as Tennessee was doesn’t necessitate change to ultimately succeed. Tennessee accomplished a lot in 2022. It won the SEC, advanced to a second straight Super Regional and made national headlines – increasing college baseball’s brand name in the process. A team that everyone loves to hate is not always a bad thing.
Learning is different from change, and there is certainly a lot Tennessee can learn from its season-ending performance against the Fighting Irish.
Tennessee could not afford the loss of Gilbert and Anderson in Game One, it really struggled to gain momentum from his return in Game Three as well. Flipping the bird towards the outfielder of the other team is one thing, but essentially doing the same to the one authority in the playing field and expecting anything other than an ejection is another.
That’s the type of stuff that Tennessee may need to address. The Vols were good enough to be cocky, but that doesn’t mean the slice humble pie wasn’t warranted at the end of Sunday’s game.
Tennessee will have talent next season. The rotation especially, alongside Kansas transfer Maui Ahuna, will be nice pieces to retain and add. One thing is certain, Tennessee era of winning baseball games is far from over.
