Tennessee opened fall baseball practices at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Thursday.
The 6-foot-6, 245-pound Evans appeared in 19 games in 2022, recording 22 strikeouts and a 2.25 ERA. He did not play in 2023 due to injury.
“When you looked at him as a freshman, he’s getting solid innings, competitive innings, SEC Innings as a freshman on one of the best teams in the country in 2022,” Vitello said. “Then a frustrating year for all last year where he couldn’t get out there consistently with just some soreness and no major injury. I think he has a lot of that past him now. He’s got a lot of spring in his step when he’s at the park and then the ball’s jumping out of his hand pretty good. When you think of starters in our league, a lot of those guys are not just durable bodies, but big physical guys, and Wyatt is just that.
“Now he’s got some experience to boot, so again reflecting back on his freshman year, if we could predict the future we thought he’d get more innings as a sophomore and then be a strong candidate to be a starter on the weekend for us this year, but like I said there’s a lot of open competitions. If he were not able to capture one of those roles at any point in the year, I think he can pick back up where he left off in 2022 and serve a major role for us.”
PHOTOS: Tony Vitello through the years
