{"id":36419,"date":"2022-06-04T13:31:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T13:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/everything-tony-vitello-said-about-evan-russell-situation-vols-ncaa-tournament-win\/"},"modified":"2022-06-04T13:31:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T13:31:03","slug":"everything-tony-vitello-said-about-evan-russell-situation-vols-ncaa-tournament-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/everything-tony-vitello-said-about-evan-russell-situation-vols-ncaa-tournament-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Tony Vitello said about Evan Russell situation, Vols’ NCAA Tournament win"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Friday was an interesting but good say for the top-ranked Tennessee baseball team, at least on the field, and Vols coach Tony Vitello<\/b> had plenty to say about it.<\/p>\n

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The top-ranked Vols didn’t have senior catcher Evan Russell<\/b> with an unspecified medical issue but still opened the NCAA Tournament with a 10-0 win over Alabama State on Friday night in a Knoxville Regional game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.<\/p>\n

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It was a bit of a sluggish start for Tennessee – at least by that team’s absurd standard – but the Vols (54-7) were never truly threatened by the Hornets (34-24) and cruised into a winner’s bracket game against Campbell on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

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The biggest news of Friday’s game came before it started, when Russell – arguably the most indispensable player on Tennessee’s roster – wasn’t in the lineup. Tennessee said only that Russell was \u201cunavailable\u201d for the game, and that Vitello would discuss the matter after the game.<\/p>\n

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Vitello indeed had plenty of questions about Russell after Friday’s game, and he answered all of them without going into specific detail on any of them.<\/p>\n

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Redshirt freshman Charlie Taylor got the biggest start of his young career in Russell’s place, and the young man with an .054 batting average helped kickstart the offense with an RBI on a safety-squeeze bunt in the bottom of the sixth. That well-placed bunt got the Vols and their capacity crowd going, starting a five-run ambush that essentially ended the game.<\/p>\n

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Junior right fielder Jordan Beck<\/b> – AKA Mike Honcho – hit two of Tennessee’s five home runs, and the Vols gave sophomore right-hander Blade Tidwell<\/b>, who threw 7.2 dominant innings on the mound to get a second consecutive tournament weekend started in a big way. Tidwell never looked stressed in his longest outing of the season, allowing just three hits while striking out seven and walking none in his 93-pitch evening.<\/p>\n

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A pair of big junior right-handers – Ben Joyce<\/b> and Mark McLaughlin<\/b> – combined to finish the four innings of the shutout, allowing the Hornets to get just four runners on base.<\/p>\n

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Sophomore second baseman Jorel Ortega<\/b>junior center fielder Drew Gilbert<\/b> and freshman designated hitter Blake Burke<\/b> also homered for the Vols, who led just 3-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth sixth but scored seven runs in their final three at-bats to pull away down the stretch.<\/p>\n

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Tennessee scored in six of its eight innings at the plate, and the Vols – at least to this point – were just fine without Russell, who’s tied with Todd Helton<\/b> atop the program’s career home run chart.<\/p>\n

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Alabama State senior ace Breon Pooler battled the Vols’ potent offense for 4.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on eight innings before giving way to the bullpen, which struggled even more, allowing seven earned runs on seven hits in 3.1 innings. Poole was tagged with loss, falling to 10-3 on the year. Tidwell earned the win, improving to 3-1.<\/p>\n

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Tennessee and Campbell will play in Saturday’s 7 pm Eastern winners’ bracket game, since the Camels thumped Georgia Tech, 15-8, in Friday’s first game. Alabama State and Georgia Tech will play an elimination game Saturday at noon Eastern, and the winner of that game will play the Tennessee-Campbell loser at noon Eastern on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Here’s everything Vitello said after Friday’s win.<\/p>\n


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