Vitello’s Vols are on SEC upswing

KNOXVILLE — With his team leading by two runs and two outs away from a series win over Texas A&M, Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello motioned for pitching coach Frank Anderson to make a change.

Freshman left-hander Garrett Crochet, relegated to the bullpen after a string of tough starts, was rifling through Texas A&M hitters. But the 14th-ranked Aggies were bringing the top of their order to the plate, and the Volunteers had a plan to follow.

After a sweep at the hands of LSU the weekend before that included a brutal ninth-inning collapse, Vitello’s message to the team this past week was simple: Be ready.

Though pulling Crochet may have seemed odd to some, Vitello had planned for this point in the game.

The move paid off. Freshman right-hander Chase Wallace entered, walked one batter, then induced a game-ending double play to lift Tennessee to a 6-4 win over the Aggies at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.

“If you were just reading the situation, you would probably say, ‘Well, just stick with Crochet,’” Vitello said. “But it seems like when you’re in the dugout and you kind of go against the plan you’ve set up to do, it bites you more than it doesn’t. So we went with it.”

That the Vols (24-18, 7-11 Southeastern Conference), so soon after their disappointing finish at LSU, held on to take two of three against a team that appeared in the 2017 College World Series was the latest sign Vitello’s first Tennessee team is resilient.

The Vols have freshmen and sophomores throughout the lineup and pitching rotation, and with 12 games remaining on their SEC schedule, they have already matched their league wins total from 2017.

“There’s progress in all areas,” Vitello said. “It’s not as fast as anyone wants it, but I guess with the Italian blood, it’s the old ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’ As far as the big-picture stuff and how we compare to last year’s team, it’s a waste of time. We are not last year’s team.”

At 13th in the 14-team standings, Tennessee would be on the outside looking in at the 12-team SEC tournament if the regular season ended now. But the Vols trail seven teams by two or fewer games in the standings. They will have a chance to bolster their position during a three-game series

at Georgia next weekend after hosting Tennessee Tech on Tuesday.

Error-free defense Friday and Sunday helped the Vols — plagued by defensive woes this season — beat Texas A&M (2911, 9-9), which had won six of its past seven league games when it arrived in Knoxville.

Freshman right-hander Sean Hunley replaced Crochet as Tennessee’s starter in Friday night’s series opener and threw five innings in the Vols’ 7-4 victory, though Wallace earned the win with four innings of relief. Andre Lipcius and Brodie Leftridge homered for Tennessee, and Evan Russell provided a pair of sacrifice flys.

Garrett Stallings took the loss for the Vols on Saturday, when Texas A&M won 8-3 with the help of three Tennessee errors.

Will Neely started and pitched 5 2/3 innings for Tennessee in the rubber match. The Aggies tagged him for two runs in the first, but Tennessee clawed back. The top two batters in the order, Justin Ammons and Jay Charleston, combined for six hits, and Leftridge and catcher Benito Santiago each homered.

Crochet entered with the score 4-4 in the sixth, and he earned the win after allowing one hit and striking out four in 2 2/3 innings.

“I did it a little earlier in the season,” Crochet said of his new bullpen role. “But it was kind of a new feeling totally. Big adrenaline rush, big-time situation. I just knew I had to come in and trust my defense.”

Ultimately, it was Vitello — not Anderson — who went to the mound to make the ninth-inning pitching change.

“I told Frank to go get him, and he said, ‘You go get him,’” Vitello recalled. “I about had to throw up three or four times being that guy who went and took Garrett Crochet out, who is absolutely rolling.”

But there was a plan to follow. A week after letting a ninth-inning lead against an SEC foe slip away, the Vols were ready this time.

“Eventually,” Vitello said, “I went out there and gave Chase the ball, and he did what he needed to do.”