Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello spoke to members of the local media on Tuesday night following his program’s midweek 12-4 victory over Western Carolina from Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The following is a written transcript of the Tony Vitello postgame press conference with video above.
On Colby Backus getting the start and how he did…
“He’s earned more than he’s gotten or probably ever will get if you’re basing it on being a teammate, work ethic, overcoming adversity, but really starting today was a reward for his effort. I mean that’s a really good catch he made up against the wall in Lexington, and then a couple of other balls he tracks down because he’s athletic and wants to be out there. And then probably the biggest thing was [they] hit a couple of homers – you know the wind is blowing out – and Kirby [Connell] did an unreal job for us and did exactly what we needed him to do and wanted him to do. Throw strikes and eat up a bunch of innings the way he did, but he gives up a couple of homers over the course of that, and Backus almost took down that center field wall twice. I had to go back and watch it on video. But Stove (Zach Stovall), our video coordinator, said ‘He about ran through that dang wall.’ So that effort earned him tonight, which was a reward to get out there and play, and he certainly took advantage of it. But, he’s going to take advantage of any opportunity he gets, and like I said, he’s earned as many as you can imagine.”
