UT Vols baseball clinches series against Kentucky without Tony Vitello

Tony Vitello believes looking back on this Tennessee baseball season will be “a hell of a story.”

Sunday was quite the addition to the tale, as the suspended Vols baseball coach wasn’t at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. He instead was at an undisclosed location – which he quipped was an “Italian mafia shelter” – to serve the first game of a two-game suspension after an ejection Saturday.

But the first-year coach was ever-present in the wake of Tennessee’s 5-3 win to clinch a series win against No. 13 Kentucky.

“Of course, I'd like to be there for my guys,” Vitello said. “But I told them, ‘Man, this time of year the players decide. The coaches are kind of overrated. You do some things here and there.’ Our guys did that. But gosh dang. They pulled through like no other. …

“We've got some ball players, man.”

Breathlessly, Vitello described the heart-hurting feeling of not being with his team and a pregame queasiness in his stomach that had him running “to the bathroom more than somebody that had eaten at Bojangles one afternoon.”

But the end of the day was a thrilling feeling for Vitello and the Vols, who won a third SEC series in a year for the first time since 2015 and took a second from a ranked team in the past three weeks.

They did it with a medley of a gut-check performance from starting pitcher Will Neely, a save from typical Saturday starter Garrett Stallings and a game-winning home run from light-hitting third baseman Brandon Chinea.

“All you can ask for is consistency in everything,” Vitello said. “Every baseball guy would like consistency. Garrett Stallings shows up to work every day, same guy. Brandon Chinea, ups and downs offensively, dude hooks it up every day. Consistent. That's what you want. Consistency.

“I think you kind of know what I'm getting at. You know when I go into a restaurant and order chicken parmesan and they bring out a cheeseburger with sour cream and cheese on it, that ain't chicken parmesan. It's nice when you get to the ballpark you know what you're getting.”

UT took an early 3-0 lead, but the Wildcats tied it in the top of the seventh. Then Chinea – who was hitting .135 at the time without a home run in his career – stepped up and launched a two-run homer to left field to send the Vols to the series win and bring Vitello racing into a frantic locker room.

“We wanted to do it for Vitello,” Chinea said. “Vitello is always there and always has our back. We wanted to get his back this game.”

Fever for Neely

On Saturday night, Neely wasn’t in the Tennessee dugout. He was relegated to the UT training room with a fever that reached 102 degrees – “he was a mess,” Vitello said.

Eventually, the Vols sent him home and a manager gave the junior pitcher a ride home. But Neely came to the park Sunday and threw five innings of two-hit baseball against one of the SEC’s most potent offenses.

“Another page in the book of who Will Neely is,” Vitello said. “I hate picking out a favorite. But that guy is an absolute warrior. Adversity doesn’t know what it is getting itself into when it goes up against Will Neely.”

Neely struck out two, walked four and allowed one run to set up UT for its second win of the weekend after a 6-2 Friday victory.

The suspension

Vitello was suspended for two games following a Saturday ejection. Pitching coach Frank Anderson also received a one-game suspension after he was tossed from the 10-3 loss to Kentucky.

Hitting coach Josh Elander served as the head coach Sunday.

Vitello initially left the dugout Saturday to argue a balk call on freshman pitcher Sean Hunley in the sixth inning of a 1-1 game. During his dispute, Anderson also got involved and was ejected and received an automatic one-game suspension.

After Anderson was thrown out, Vitello also was tossed from the game while walking away from the argument. Late Saturday, he was handed a two-game suspension by the SEC for "prolonged arguing."

Vitello said he “would love to” appeal the second game of the suspension, which is slated to keep him out of the dugout when UT hosts Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m. ET Friday.

“I don’t know how much of a process there is,” Vitello said. “Our record is pretty good when I’m not in the dugout. I’m not worried about it. I’m worried about these guys finishing finals the right way, taking confidence from this victory, but not sleeping on it.”

Tennessee has been in contact with the league office regarding the second game of the suspension.