Tennessee will open its 2024 season on Feb. 16 versus Texas Tech (8 p.m. EST) in the Shriners Children’s College Baseball Showdown presented by Kubota.
The tournament will take place at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, home of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.
Seventh-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with media on Thursday and previewed the 2024 season.
Vitello discussed the Vols’ shortstop position ahead of opening day.
“I think a couple guys,” Vitello said of how close he is in deciding a starting shortstop. “You know, this is a tough time of year because we’re technically not in season yet or however you want to phrase it. You’d like to be able to work with your guys on their arms, and also their legs, and we’ve got a couple guys, nothing major, but a couple guys that get a little sore, either hamstring or arm, or other part, and we’d like to play that more conservative than not, so not everyone’s been full go including a couple guys that can play that position is what I’m alluding to.
“It sounds crazy, I’m not necessarily worried about who the guy is overall, you know especially come SEC play because we’ll find that out with our starting rotation. It’s the same as shortstop, how we’re going to handle this great catching group we have. We’re going to have to work through those things, and that’s going to be an ongoing process, so I don’t think there’ll be a pound the fist on the desk moment that this is the guy, it’s great to have options. I don’t think anyone has really separated themselves, like I said, the one thing we got out of the fall was CMo (Christian Moore) established that he can play that position, and then also Ariel (Antigua) was kind of the guy that was based off what teammates said, and other coaches, kind of the guy that was a leading candidate at that spot as well.”
