Dan Fleser
My first thought about Tennessee and the SEC baseball tournament this week is the Vols shouldn’t give the event a second thought.
The top-ranked Vols (49-7) won the regular-season championship by a record six-game margin. They’ve conquered the conference. There’s little to be gained from repeating the feat. The upcoming NCAA tournament should be their sole focus.
Of course, this is one man’s opinion.
And I’m someone Vols catcher Evan Russell probably would consider to be an outside source. In other words, shove a baseball in my big mouth.
“As long as we keep playing well, playing the way we are right now, not let any outside sources get in our heads, we’ll be fine,” said Russell, after the Vols finished a series sweep of defending national champion Mississippi State last weekend in Starkville, Miss.
During an interview Tuesday night at the tournament site, Vols coach Tony Vitello said the players have plotted much of the competitive course for this season and he’s fine with it, given the team’s success.
“I think whatever attitude or theme we try to preach to them,” he said, “it’s going to be secondary to what they’re going to have and I trust what they’ve got going on more than anything.”
Six Vols received All-SEC honors this week. Chase Dollander was named pitcher of the year and fellow pitcher Drew Beam was named freshman of the year. Vitello was honored as coach of the year.
Former Major Leaguer David Dellucci, who played collegiately for Ole Miss, now serves as analyst for the SEC Network. Earlier this month, he said Tennessee is “the best team that college baseball has ever seen from top to bottom.”
“The depth on this team is amazing and there is really nothing they can’t do,” Dellucci said. “Just need to continue and not lose focus.”
Sounded like he was issuing a warning about outside sources as well.
Tennessee’s depth will be its best asset this week in Hoover, Ala., beginning with Thursday morning’s game, weather permitting, against Vanderbilt. The Vols’ talent extends beyond the all-conference honors. They are deep enough to both compete and rest players.
The trickiest part will be managing pitchers. Vitello noted Tuesday that starters Dollander and Blade Tidwell missed time during the regular season with minor injuries and are more fresh than usual. Depending on the number of games played and how the tournament schedule plays out, an option might be how Tennessee approached last Saturday’s series finale at Mississippi State. Six pitchers were used and none worked longer than 2.2 innings.
“Those were the guys that were going to get into the game no matter what,” Vitello said after the 10-5 victory. “. . . The bottom line is each guy got their work. They got it done against a really talented team and they got it done in a tough environment.”
Reliever Kirby Connell got the most work, throwing a perfect 2.2 innings. He also benefited the most, pitching out of a bases-loaded jam he inherited when entering the game in the fourth inning.
“Throwing strikes and let the defense play behind me,” he said. “I really showed it this weekend. You’re not going to be able to strike out everybody.”
While Mississippi State scored five runs, the Vols pitchers issued just two walks. Vitello referred to the latter statistic as “kind of an unsung hero part of the game.”
On second thought, maybe that should be Tennessee’s approach to this tournament. Strive for unsung hero moments.
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Dan Fleser is a 1980 graduate of the University of Missouri, who covered University of Tennessee athletics from 1988-2019. He can be reached at ddanfleser3@gmail.com.