Tony Vitello has Tennessee baseball heading toward NCAA Tournament berth

Tennessee baseball had an unpleasant bus ride on March 17.

Tennessee lost its third straight game against No. 23 Auburn that day, halting the good feeling of a strong nonconference run. Two of the defeats were heartbreaking in coach Tony Vitello’s assessment a month later.

The Vols were headed into spring break the following day – a week Vitello has seen work against a team – and a weekend series with South Carolina loomed.

“That really could have set us back,” Vitello said Wednesday. “It was impressive for them to take a stand. I felt like they literally put up a wall and said, ‘That happened. It is not going to happen again. And we are going to cut it off.’”

No. 22 Tennessee (27-11, 6-9 SEC) picked it up since that low moment and is pressing toward the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 2005.

The Vols took two of three from South Carolina, scoring four eighth-inning runs in the Sunday finale to clinch the series. They won once against both No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 2 Mississippi State in the next two weekends.

Then they had a statement against then-No. 2 Georgia, taking two of three to win a monster series before facing Kentucky to open a three-game set Thursday.

“I think some of them instantly looked and said, ‘We know what they are and what we have. But we know what we are and what we have. Why wouldn’t we be able to do this?’” Vitello said. “There were some sincere comments out of those guys that they expected to win the series.”

There has been a lot of that in Vitello’s second year at Tennessee. The Vols returned almost all of their roster, especially in the core of the pitching staff, and started well.

UT won 15 straight games to start the season and entered SEC play with a 17-1 record, putting itself in position to play in the NCAA Tournament.

“To get some of those wins, I think it helped the guys to form the belief that this thing is turning in a new direction,” Vitello said. “We have a new locker room we walk into every day. We have a new facility we play on. We kind of have a new way that things are going for us on the field.”

Tennessee, currently projected as a No. 3 seed by Baseball America, has SEC series remaining at Kentucky, at No. 10 Arkansas, against Missouri, at Florida and against No. 17 Ole Miss.

Vitello stressed the Vols need to keep a simple approach and “just go play” for the next month to continue trending toward the program’s first SEC Tournament appearance since 2016.

The Vols are in this position in large part because of a pitching staff Vitello expected would be a strength. He praised pitching coach Frank Anderson on Wednesday and rattled off half the staff as players who took a big jump from last year to this year.

“You don’t typically see a whole group move together in almost a horde fashion,” Vitello said.

Junior Garrett Stallings has led the way for the Vols. He is 6-2 with a 1.88 ERA after throwing a five-hit, one-walk shutout against Georgia on Friday. UT has thrown eight shutouts this season.

“When you have the guy that is your best leader and your best worker also being your best pitcher and the guy you go to in Game 1, it is the dream package as a coach,” Vitello said.

Tennessee’s power numbers offensively also are up, with junior-college transfer Alerick Soularie providing a boost. The sophomore ranks in the SEC’s top five in home runs (nine), batting average (.385), slugging percentage (.697) and on-base percentage (.492).

Andre Lipcius, who tied for the UT lead with seven homers last season, already has eight, and the Vols are trending in the right direction quickly under Vitello.

“Why not do those as fast as possible?” Vitello said of reaching the SEC Tournament, the NCAA Tournament and advancing in it. “It’s not about a five- or six-year thing.”

And Vitello is enjoying it all with those possibilities on the radar since rebounding from a rough weekend in Alabama.

“It is an insane combination of stress and fun,” Vitello said.