Tony Vitello believes SEC experience will help in elimination game vs. Evansville

The Tennessee Volunteers had an opportunity to eliminate Evansville in Game 2 of the Knoxville Super Regional. Unfortunately, the Purple Aces battled back, evening the series at 1-1 and sending it to a deciding Game 3.

With Sunday’s showdown being a must-win for Tennessee and head coach Tony Vitello, the Volunteers will stop at nothing to keep their postseason hopes alive. Fortunately, Tennessee has been prepared for this exact scenario, according to their head coach, courtesy of conference play. After the Volunteers’ 10-8 loss on Saturday, Vitello discussed how playing in the SEC will help his team in their elimination game on Sunday.

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“I think it’s a benefit. I mean you got the series on the line is what you got. It helps to have a vision of what it looks like, and it helps to have reps,” Vitello said. “You can think of any sport you want, but you want as many repetitions as possible. And the one thing about practice is it’s tough to put yourself in a practice or training situation where you can replicate things like today or like tomorrow; or other opportunities we’ve had on game day that you could talk about. So, no question it’s a benefit.”

In terms of conference series this year, Tennessee has played in 10 best-of-three weekend series in the SEC. The Volunteers finished those 10 series with a 9-1 record, only losing their opening three-game showdown of conference play to the Alabama Crimson Tide on the road in Tuscaloosa, AL. Outside of that, vitello’s bunch was dominant this season in the SEC, finishing with a 22-8 record and a share of the conference regular season title to go along with the conference tournament crown.

As vitello continued with the press conference, he readdressed the notion of a SEC play benefiting his team. He also went as far as to say that Saturday’s lost to Evansville helped the young Volunteer players more than they realize.

“When it’s a true series in the SEC, every little thing counts,” said Vitello. “And, fortunately, this yea,r we have benefited from it. But there’s also some series where we made a tough run ourselves or [were] not able to come up because of different pitches or innings that are involved in that. They all have weight to them. Obviously the game ended in the nineth inning but I think it helped more than our players will even know.”

The last and final game of the Knoxville Super Regional will be this Sunday, June 9. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:00 PM ET, and the winner of Sunday’s contest will punch their ticket to the College World Series. Fans can catch all the action live on ESPN or stream it using the ESPN app.