Everything Tony Vitello, Cal Stark said on a series-win at Auburn
Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello and catcher Cal Stark spoke on the team’s 19-5 game three, run-rule victory at Auburn and the third series-win of the Southeastern conference slate.
Below is a written transcript of the Tony Vitello and Cal Stark postgame conference.
Tony Vitello
On responding to the early deficit…
“Well. I think they responded the entire weekend. A tough loss on Friday and then Zander responded and went out and got a huge zero in the second (inning). On a day like today when it’s a good hitting day and the ground here starts to get a little harder, whatever you want to throw out there, good offensive lineup— every zero is big but that second one was really huge and on the offensive side I think the guys were pretty well locked in all weekend other than when we kind of got punched in the gut on Friday, maybe needed to respond better there a little bit but to win a series on the road is huge in the SEC.”
On Cal Stark having success at the plate…
“It’s fun. You want to see all these guys kind of achieve at the level they deserve or they’re capable of and he’s certainly fully capable on both sides of the ball. So is Cannon (Peebles) and so is Chuck (Charlie Taylor) but the numbers didn’t quite show that he was capable of doing things until today and it’s starting to stack up, or as you mentioned, the last few times out (is) starting to stack up and like you said, he’s valuable for us whether he’s in the lineup or not.”
On winning three straight series rubber matches…
“I think it does. I’m just kind of going off their vibe a little bit but I think they like it. They like a challenge and you better because it’s going to seek you out if you don’t seek it out in our league and in particular on the road but also at home. And the more you experience something, you like to think the better you get at it so certainly to our benefit. You want to win as many games as you can but it certainly is to your benefit to be in these 1-1 battles as we have.”
On LHP Andrew Behnke returning to the mound…
“It was huge. He faced arguably their three best hitters and two of the better hitters in the entire country, not just our league. To come in and do what he did after a little bit of time off, to me, was extraordinary, really, but the best vibe there was just seeing him come out there and knowing he is back in our bullpen.”
Cal Stark
How good it felt to go 3-for-3 with two homers and seven RBIs…
“It feels awesome being able to contribute on the offensive side of the ball. It just makes us that much more dangerous, especially when all of us are swinging the bat like we did this weekend. It just makes us a dangerous team, so it just feels really good.”
On the offense feeding off of each another…
“A saying that I’ve always heard since I was little is that hitting is contagious. So I mean, I think we showed that these last two games. Our offense is dangerous, so when we’re clicking on all cylinders like we were these last two games, it just keeps rolling like we did. It just makes it extra fun.”
On winning three straight rubber match games…
“I think it’s huge because Sunday is a really big day. You’re either going to try to win the series, sweep them or steal one. Sunday I feel like is almost one of the biggest days there is on the weekend, so getting those wins on Sunday is absolutely massive.”
What he saw from Zander Sechrist, Nate Snead and Andrew Behnke on the mound…
“I think Zander bounced back well after that first inning. A few calls didn’t go his way, but I think he bounced back well. And then Snead, Snead was just filling up the strike zone. That’s what he prides himself on and he had a lot of pitches working for him today. Behnke looked really good. It was good to see him back out there, so it was awesome.”
