What Tony Vitello said on the Billy Amick, AJ Russell injuries

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello addressed the injury situation of two standout Vols Tuesday night following a win over Tennessee Tech in the midweek.

Volquest reported Tuesday morning that third baseman Billy Amick would miss the Tennessee Tech game with an appendix injury but that the situation was not considered to be long-term. The expectation is that Amick will miss a couple of more games as well as Vitello addressed the situation in postgame Tuesday night.

“With Billy, I think it will be sooner than later but with the appendix situation he had to go all of a sudden, as anyone who’s dealt with that (knows) it’s an all of a sudden thing,” Vitello explained. “Went to the hospital, get things worked on for him to be available this weekend isn’t a reality but I think sometime soon after is a reality. It was nice to see him healthy enough to be in the dugout and he gave part of the postgame speech and stole my thunder, so he’s good at a lot of things. He’s kind of one of those guys for players like me that aren’t very good you kind of want to smack him sometimes but it’s nice to write his name in the lineup but that will be a little while.”

Vitello initially made the comment of Amick’s situation on Monday night’s edition of Vol Calls.

“He’s got a little something that popped up with him too,” the coach said of his third baseman. “I’ll leave it up to the training staff and the doctors – I don’t think there’s anything crazy with him, but he might be in a position where we might have to find a way to win a game or two without him too.”

Amick, who transferred to Tennessee via the portal during the offseason, has been fantastic for the Vols in 2024. The third baseman has started in all 25 games and launched a grand slam in his final at-bat in Sunday’s 15-4 win over Ole Miss. Amick drove in five runs in the ballgame.

The junior is tied with Christian Moore with a team-high 10 home runs and is currently third on the squad with a .367 clip at the plate. Amick is tied for second on the team with freshman Dean Curley with 26 RBI. Both trail Dylan Dreiling who has driven in 30 runs. Amick is also second in slugging percentage (.789) and has made just two errors in the field at the hot corner.

Another setback for RHP AJ Russell

Right-handed pitcher AJ Russell left Saturday’s game in the ninth inning against Ole Miss when making a multi-inning relief appearance behind starter Drew Beam. It was only his second appearance back for the Vols following his removal from an Albany start on February 21.   

“With AJ, kind of waiting to see what’s there. I would expect, kind of maybe we went to quick or maybe we didn’t,” the coach continued. “I don’t think there’s a real answer there but maybe back to where we were where we have to let things calm down and let him rest. So I wouldn’t say we are in any kind of hurry with that or anything on the horizon for him anytime soon.”

Vitello previously addressed the second injury to his Opening Day starter on Vol Calls Monday night as well

“Russell, right now, is probably in another period where he’s a little bit sore. We are going to have to figure out when he’s available again,” the coach admitted. “He’s just as frustrated as anybody….So, I hate to see that kid have anything interfere with his success, but it just hasn’t worked out smoothly for him.”

Previously after the game on Saturday, the skipper described the injury as tightness.

“Had some tightness in his forearm,” Vitello said after the game Saturday night on Russell. “He felt that soreness in there. I think he was wanting to warmup or kind of see how it felt, but we aren’t going to mess with that at any point in that situation.

“We were kind of at the end of the deal with how we wanted to use him, but either a credit to them or maybe being off a little bit command wise and pitch count climbing pretty quick in the amount of time that he was out there. I mean, he did record three innings worth of outs for us. He did a good job. He kept us in the game but unfortunately, I think gave up one of several 0-2 hits that were painful.”

Tennessee returns to Southeastern Conference action this weekend when Georgia comes to town for a three-game set.