Everything Tony Vitello said after Tennessee baseball's season-ending loss to Notre Dame

Tony Vitello spoke to the media following Tennessee baseball's 7-3 loss to Notre Dame in the super regionals on Sunday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium that ended the Vols season.

Tennessee's coach touched on the end of the season, the decision to keep Chase Burns in the game during Notre Dame's 7th inning rally and more.

Tony Vitello press conference after Notre Dame loss

Opening Statement

Tony Vitello: “Obviously, congratulations to Notre Dame. I’d say they have a lot to do with what I’m at fault for as far as decision making. The job of a coach is once the game starts to put your guys in a good position to succeed and I didn’t do that. This is a job that requires big boy decisions and they come at high stakes when you play in our league or you get into the postseason. A lot of that was discomfort from things we saw out of Notre Dame. So again, credit to them.

"And then two, you have to execute and they did that. Throughout the weekend, I thought our guys played good defense and obviously we did some damage yesterday on the scoreboard. That’ll stick with me. Notre Dame will get to go to Omaha and enjoy that and probably do some damage, it’s a really tough group. I think what needs to stick with our guys once time passes— which they say time heals all wounds, I don’t know who they are because sometimes those take a long time.

"Fifty-seven (wins this season). That’s a lot. That’s a lot. A team with a bunch of good kids, a couple maniacs out there. Accused of bats, I’ve never seen a kid accused of doctoring a ball. Accused of doing the Astros and banging on the bench. Accused of signaling 3-3 and that's supposed to be the double bird. A lot of that stuff was just because of how dynamic they were as a group and what they accomplished. They did some extraordinary things. Really it was just kind of like yesterday — you slide Trey Lipscomb into the four-hole because Drew Gilbert’s out and he gets an RBI in the first inning. That obviously is not the most important play of the weekend, but it’s one to me that defines this group of a bunch of guys that have each other’s backs.”

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Question: Can you put your thumb on what went wrong in general this weekend?

Vitello: “No, I think there are a couple of occasions. It’s obviously emotional and our guys have their thoughts on Nebraska, which is what all kids do this time of the year. Really all kids just in general. I think we got stunned a couple of times. That’s nothing new in my opinion. So when that happened, maybe some things showed up that you saw that weren’t crisp.

"But overall, I thought our guys had good vibes all weekend long for a majority of the time, and we played a really good opponent. You kind of just knew it—today was going to come down to the ninth. I think with my interference, it started earlier than that, but you knew it was going to kind of come down to the end there. So it’s going to be hard fought whoever won.”

Question: Tony, what went into the decision to leave (Chase) Burns in there to try and get out of the 7th?

Vitello: “It’s just the fact that he had gotten their best hitter out. Jack (Brannigan) is a special kid. You can see that. He’s pretty damn annoying if you’re on the other side, but he’s that for a reason. Chase gets him out, so now we’re one out away. I’ve played at a couple of other fields too where it has that quirky—and (David) LaManna certainly squared it up—angle down the right field corner. If it goes, it goes. After seeing that foul-home run against Brannigan, maybe making the pitching change in the middle of that at-bat would have been wise, but I think Chase wanted the ball.

"He certainly took ownership of the game. We felt good about the matchup against LaManna, but we should have taken him out before that, in particular after the foul-home run. Although normally when you see that, what usually ends up happening is that you strike out as a hitter after the foul-home run, but kudos to him. He smoked two balls. It wasn’t like Chase wasn’t on the map. I think it was 97 on the radar gun. The pitch before was certainly a ball, but it was a pretty crisp 0-2 pitch where you’d like to see the guy swing and miss or if it’s a little closer to the plate, maybe you get a borderline strike call.”

Question: There were so many times this season where even when things didn't go right, the team fought back and responded. With everything on the line today, those final couple innings, did you think the guys got affected at all? Or was it just, things didn't go right?

Vitello: "It’s in the back of your mind, otherwise you’re not human. Maybe we got overaggressive in one situation, but I think it was a difficult day to score runs. Their number says otherwise, but it truly was. We did get to the lefty on Friday for one run, but we didn’t really have an answer for that. Part of it is that he threw the ball really well."

Question: What made (Notre Dame's Jack) Findlay so effective today?

Vitello: “I think he’s pretty good at stretching the plate. He did that a little bit on Friday. Also, if I’m correct, his off-speed command hasn’t been that great in the past, but today it was. Again, it was a difficult day to score runs. His biggest key probably was, when guys get on base or we were starting to build something, it got cut off pretty quickly.”

Question: Tony, I think it was in the third inning when umpires first talked to Link Jarrett and then came over to ask you to come out of the dugout. What was that about and what was their message to you at that time?

Vitello: “That there was a warning for the benches. I don’t know if it started with the play at third. You got their guy running around like a madman trying to stretch you know the whole thing. He got to second, and he almost got third, so I don't know if it was from that collision. (Alex) Rao was throwing the ball well. He struck one of our guys out and told him to sit down. I mean, during the regular season, that's what goes on. If you do something well, and there's a lot of emotion into it, which probably if you do something well, it's really important to you. That's the kind of stuff that comes out.

"When you do something like he did or other guys in that situation, you've earned the right to say that stuff. It's up to us to try and respond back and see if we can get to the guy. I don't know if that’s what started it. It was just kind of my philosophy on some of the extra stuff. I'm disappointed in myself, but it was nice that the game was decided on the field. For many reasons, they were the better team today.”

Question: With all of Frank's experience with the pitching staff, were you missing him a little bit the last couple days?

Vitello: "This guy (Luc Lipcius) doesn’t know this, but (Notre Dame starter Liam Simon) has an incredible arm. He’ll probably pitch in the big leagues, but command hasn't been that great. So I call (assistant coach Josh Elander) over and say, ‘With Seth, let's definitely take, you know, in a certain situation.’ Then I said, ‘What about Luc? What if if he goes 1-0 to Luc? And he said no, because of, you know, he gets it in one spot, Luke may get him. Look what happened.

"So now, no one out there is a baseball guru that much, to hit the nail on the head every time, but I'm just trying to express to you how good Coach Elander is at managing the game. And if you look at the situations where he's been put in charge of anything, including our recruiting, it's gone really, really well. So I don't mean to discredit Frank, but I think a lot of Frank's genius is the time he spends with pitchers building relationships up in the office, adjustments he makes with them individually down in the bullpen.

"And then, you know, on game day, it's just his competitiveness. He certainly has a lot of experience and knowledge. But again, if it's important to you, everybody’ll know. And unfortunately, we didn't have him because that competitiveness spilled over a little bit. But if you look at the resume, it's working out pretty good for that guy. But again, I just think, Coach Elander’s so good, he could run the whole team, and we could disappear for a few weeks if we wanted to and he would do well."

Question: How hard is it for this team to not get that opportunity (to go to Omaha for the College World Series)?

Vitello: “Yeah, it's the way that it goes. It's not easy. I'm glad you asked the question, and I don't know how I'm doing up here. Probably some people think good, some people think bad that everyone's got an opinion on everything, which is fair play to them, but it's hard. I'm searching for the right way to say it to not offend anybody. But I've had people that played baseball. 'Can't wait to see you in Omaha, made reservations in Omaha.' This is not easy. Ask Notre Dame. They came up short last year. This year, they did not.

"I'm sure it drove them like crazy. Maybe that gave them a little edge in Friday's game. I would like to make it automatic. I'd like to be able to recruit that well. I certainly can't coach that well, but it is automatic. Ask any team in the country that gets there or has ever played there or has ever come up short. It is not automatic.

"So, I don't think anyone had that in their mind because of what our accomplishments were. They have just been such a good group about tackling the next thing. I think the fact they came up short today, knowing their character and I hate to speak for them. I'll end my long answer here. I think this group is really good, and one reason why is because they'll be more upset about coming up short today. Whereas you guys will fairly write about, didn't make it to this spot or didn't carry on or didn't win a national championship, which was, in my opinion, far from our mind. I think that's one of the reasons they have been impressive. Certainly, on Friday or Saturday, it was chaos. For good reason.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: What Tony Vitello said after Tennessee baseball's season-ending loss