It has become news when Tennessee’s baseball team loses a game. Well, news broke for the Vols on Tuesday in rather surprising fashion. UT lost to East Tennessee State 7-6.
One has to wonder if Tennessee’s loss to ETSU was part of a premeditated plan by UT coach Tony Vitello. After all, the Vols were feeling pretty good about themselves at 20-0, being the consensus No. 1 team in the nation and just coming off of a sweep of Florida, which is a consensus Top 10 team.
“We’ll see what we got,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said after the game. “To this point, it’s been nothing but glad handing and hype and everything else. Some of it is earned and some of it is not, but it has all been positive.
“There’s a lot of negatives in this game and there’s a lot of negatives in competing. We will see what we got between now and a quick turnaround.”
The quick turnaround will have the Vols traveling to Alabama to face the Crimson Tide. There are no gimmes in the SEC. The Vols (20-1) will have to refocus after the loss to the Buccaneers. It shouldn’t be hard. Alabama is also considered a Top 10 team in the nation. However, Vitello was quick to point out that it’s too early to place labels on any team or the SEC as a whole – his Vols included.
“You’re still figuring out what you have and what you don’t have,” Vitello said. “You’d like to think the ball that fans see or that you guys watch in February and March isn’t going to be as good as what you will see in May because teams will continue to progress. Repetitions are so valuable for these young kids. From our standpoint, too, we’re still trying to figure out who is going to do what and who is going to be consistent and who has a lack of fear on gameday.
There hasn’t been much fear in Tennessee’s dugout this season as the Vols have torn through their schedule. UT has run-ruled its opposition nine times this season. Vitello hinted that the Vols’ success might have led to some early-season complacency.
“Yeah, I mean, people get comfortable,” Vitello said. “We’re in a good spot to be having this conversation…Nobody is invincible, for sure. I think it’s important to find an even balance of how you are going to be every day each inning, because at the end of that game, there were two pretty excited teams looking at every pitch like it was the end of the world.
“That wasn’t the case in the first inning. And maybe I’m guilty of that, too, but I think that’s an important lesson.”
There is no question that Tennessee is a better team than ETSU (16-4) despite the loss to the Bucs. If the two teams played a one-game, winner-take-all matchup – or even a three-game series – the Vols would be definitive favorites. If ETSU stood in the way of, let’s say, a national championship, the Vols would surely alter their pitching rotation to be sure that they didn’t fall short as they did on Tuesday.
That makes one wonder. Vitello doesn’t coach Tennessee’s football team. A loss in that sport can dash the hopes of an entire season. Baseball is different.
Vitello didn’t throw the ETSU game, but one has to wonder how hard he tried to win it, how much he might have put on his players to turn things around on their own. The loss to ETSU wasn’t an SEC loss, certainly didn’t end Tennessee’s season and may have been just what the Vols needed to keep their ego in check.
