The Vols also won the regular season SEC championship and have been ranked No. 1 nationally in the USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll since March 28.
Following the Vols’ win against Florida, fifth-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello described what this year’s team means to him.
“It’s my life,” Vitello said. “My family is here. My parents, God love them, they’re probably like, when are you going to spend some time with me? There’s a lot of requirements as it relates to maybe taking them to work out or do scouting report stuff. Compared to our support staff, I don’t do nearly as much, but it’s a full-time job. During the spring, it’s literally your livelihood.
“They are unique. I think the way they go about it, it’s a really tight group. If there’s a team that played here, again, I kind of started with it at this point, they all love each other, including Florida’s roster, I’m looking at some names, and they’re all going to play with passion. It’s to what extent are you willing to do it throughout the good and bad and then how determined are you going to be to kind of hold on to that. I’ve seen programs and maybe even been part of teams where it kind of vanishes as time goes on, but this deal seems to be gaining strength.”
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