Tennessee baseball's 12-1 win over Evansville on Sunday punched its ticket to the College World Series.
Afterward, Vols coach Tony Vitello and players Dalton Bargo and Zander Sechrist met with the media.
Here's everything they had to say.
TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM
Opening statement:
"Congrats to our fans, for sure, I mean cheering pickoffs. Definitely the loudest that it’s ever been in here. Congrats to our players. They’ve obviously worked hard like anyone that’s left at this stage in the season. Obviously, a huge congrats to Evansville. Didn’t really know how to say it or show it or even here to describe how much respect we have for their program, and really this team in particular. I’ll leave it at that. Then, speaking to their program, Coach (Wes) Carroll has stayed in an awful lot of hotels as a recruiting guy and I have, too. You guys made the mistake of giving me the mic, so I’ll add to my opening statement, really picking up where we left off yesterday where somebody asked me a question that bothered one of my players, so I’ll have his back. Again, if you have to cut me off, cut me off, but I’ve stayed in an awful lot of hotels to be in this position. Alone and running around watching games. We’ve done it I think from the ground up here. While I’m at it, anybody that’s thinking about visiting our place that we’re recruiting, and you think this is a place that you can come and have your handout and see how much money we can give you, don’t waste our time and don’t waste your time either. The question was posed basically about our season and if we lose tonight, it’s all for naught. Blake Burke wasn’t too happy about it. Blake Burke has a lot invested in this particular program. If I was Blake back in that day, I was a little too wild, I would’ve said, ‘B you weren’t with me shooting in the gym’, or something similar to that. He kept his composure, clearly you’ve seen me in action, I don’t have great composure, so I’ll speak on it for a second. It started out as we were No. 1 for most of the season. That’s an incorrect statement, it’s not a fact. I don’t know who was No. 1 preseason because I don’t look at it. It's a very difficult sport to predict what’s going to happen. Nobody predicted Evansville to be here, but they were. Also, we were not No. 1 a majority of the season. As a matter of fact, when we first took over, I was astonished. Kentucky was winning our league, which you guys write up is one of the most if not most competitive leagues, and they were No. 1 in the division but somehow, we were No. 1 on writer’s polls. We weren’t for most of the season. We had to work to get to that point, no question. Then again, the word success to me is very important. In this room, we made these guys write down what success is for them and teach them that they need to define what a successful at-bat is or what a successful outing is. It’s Noah Webster’s dictionary, it says success is a degree or measure of achievement, or if you read it in another deal online, degree or measure of succeeding. So, those two words right there, and I’m definitely not the smartest fella, degree and measure mean you get to pick what success is, which is pretty awesome. Noah probably doesn’t know how to define it with these guys where you have to sweat, you have to be in the weight room together, you have to trust a guy if you give up a groundball to make a play for you, or if you give up a run the other guy will go to work for you. He wasn’t that, but he was a thinker, and the big thing Noah was, he loved his country. Big-time patriot, which is kind of a lost art around here. I don’t know the guy, but I have a lot of respect for him, and I like the way he wrote that whole deal up as far as degree or measure. For me, I get a pick. I was around my dad a lot; he can’t tell me what to do. I work for people here, but I’m my own boss when I come here and for me success is part group. When our group has success, I consider myself a teammate to these guys, it means I have a level of success. Then, there’s also a part where I have a job to do, and I have to make decisions. If you were to put all my decisions in a bucket for a weekend, I had more wrong decisions than correct decisions. For instance, Dalton Bargo probably should’ve pinch hit yesterday. He showed me that with some attitude and some success today and I’m not so sure he doesn’t do it yesterday too if we pinch hit him against (Shane) Harris because he wants to go home and he’s going home. But, you know what Bargo, success for me is being a good teammate and Cal Stark is my guy. That’s my guy for a lot of reasons, no doubt. So, success for me is what I get to judge. If you’re talking about success for this team, the one thing I stated after last season is I’m in a bathroom crying with just a lot of emotions after we’re able to beat Clemson last year, was to show up at work every day and get out of my car excited and to have fun and to be around people who want to be here and being in an environment that you’re excited to get to everyday, 100 percent success. Omaha is real fun to go to. If you don’t play that well it’s not that fun. I don’t really give a damn to be honest with you. As a matter of fact, we kind of can pick up where Evansville left off. We’re not supposed to win because the No. 1 never wins, so house money. I’m going to consider this even more of a success this year, but definitely because of that group in particular being the way that they are. I think 2022 was brought up, we could’ve won 30 games in 2022. Jared Dickey, who had a phenomenal post on social media today, transformed his entire body after quitting baseball as a part of one of the best teams and was a success as an individual among many other great things that happened. Hey, you didn’t like the team, so what? They got you talking about college baseball, I can tell you that. To me, that team was a success. The one thing I definitely want to say about Evansville, Ty Rumsey, last out of the game, not rubbing it in, not pointing fingers, be told you never got to play in Omaha. You know what, Rumsey can get on a plane and go to Omaha anytime he wants. That’s easy to do. You know what’s not easy to do? To run face first into a wall full blast, get stiches, injure your shoulder and then on top of that to play in today’s game. I’ve seen that guy. That guy made me nervous. I’ve seen a bunch of catches that guy made when we watched video. He made me nervous. Omaha or not, who gives a damn, that guy is an absolute success and when he’s older he’ll be able to look everybody in the eye and say, ‘when I played, I was a warrior, period. A part of one of the best Evansville teams ever’. No one will ever be able to take that away from him and every time he sees one of his teammates or goes back to that facility in Evansville, they’ll say, ‘hell yeah, there’s that guy right there’. For me, it’s a tangent, but that’s what success is defined by me. I get to do it the way I want to do it. You guys get to do it the way you want to do it. At the end of the day, success for me is Omaha will be where Father’s Day is for me. You know what, if you’re choosing, if you have a father figure in your life and they’ve done something to contribute to you, it doesn’t even have to be your dad, it could a coach maybe for you guys, you should appreciate him, and you’re going to have a successful day too no matter where you are. If it’s not in Omaha, I would recommend Cabo, Ibiza or Paloma. I’ll be there at some point. Thank you."
On what allowed him to have confidence in Zander Sechrist going into today:
"We watched him pitch in high school, and we said that he was going to pitch in Omaha. Just the way he competed and the way the ball came out of his hand. The players decide how confident you are. When it’s coming out of the hand like that and you’re moving around, there’s no doubt. At the end of the day, when you go home, if you’re going to consider it a deal if you’re okay with it if it goes well or it doesn’t, you want to put your head on the pillow and say, ‘I’ll win or lose for that guy anytime.’ Redmond Walsh was that guy, but he’s gone and now we have another version of him in Zander, and I will win or lose with him anytime on the field or off the field."
On how much the team having been to Omaha before will help them:
"It helps a ton because there’s a lot of things to navigate. Our guys in Hoover—I think it was partly my fault—but you get a little bit older and you watch guys that were a little bit lost and we weren’t in sync. It’s a new environment, a new itinerary and you have to be through it a little bit to be your very best. At the same time, there’s been a couple of teams that have gone there in their first time and have had a ton of success or even won the whole thing like Coastal Carolina. Overall, what you would like is to have a vision of what it’s like, how to operate with some of that time off that you get and some of the other things. There’s no question it helps. The younger guys on this team have looked to the older guys for leadership so many different times, and that will be one instance that they need to do it for sure."
On Zander Sechrist closing out the fourth inning:
"It looked like Jimmy Connors coming off the field, he doesn't know who he is, but I will send him a GIF, JIF or whatever. Then, [Dylan] Loy was throwing like a madman down there, and he had got passed up. He was going to be further down, so I was trying to go down there to tell him to stop throwing. Not the sexiest answer in the world there but the short one. The long one and the short one combined, and we are back to neutral."
On how important it was to give Zander Sechrist his moment as he walked off the field for the last time:
"You’ll have to ask him that. He made me put him back out there, and then I'm not so sure he made me take him out with his hand gestures and whatever nonverbals we had going on. What you don't want is a massive start. Sometimes, it can be more comfortable to give a guy a clean start to his inning, but he demanded to be out there on that field. Step one is saying it, and step two is doing it. He went out there, got the job done and put himself in a position where he could do what he wanted to do. He wanted to walk off the field. This is this guy's home. It's like that for every kid wherever they are. He did take a long time in recruiting, and he chose this to be his home. There have been good times and bad times, but it is always fun times when Zander is around and this is his home. This is how he wanted to do it. He has earned the right to do a lot, ask for a lot and for it to be given to him. Fortunately, the run differential made it a little easier."
On what he saw from Dalton Bargo today:
"The determination was the biggest thing that stuck out with (Bargo). He kind of had that look in his eye yesterday and at other times in the season. An incredible pinch-hit at-bat and to lead a comeback win on a Tuesday. If you don't win enough Tuesdays, you don't play in this stadium. So, the determination was obvious. Because of that, the one thing everybody says on baseball is to try not to do too much or, 'I stunk because I was trying to do too much.' If you’re that laser-focused on what you’re trying to do, you are not going to try to do more than that. All you see is what you want to do, at least that's my assumption from him. You’re not going to try to do too much and get out of whack there."
On how the team handled the pressure of a game three:
"To me, the team was fine. How many times do we go one-to-one not just in the SEC, but down in Dallas to open up the season when it was so important to these guys. We had a meeting in here, and sometimes there was fire about how many games we wanted to win down there. We wanted to win at least two. I think that experience helped. And I get it, you guys have a job to do and I respect that, but it was kind of interesting that the TV guys were roaming around our dugout looking for signs and asking how everyone was doing. It was a game, you know? I understand how important it is to everybody, but you show up to the park. Vegas doesn’t have it right; it’s 50-50. They could win or we could win, and then you go home. If you didn’t put your best foot forward, then you go back and work. But if you did, then that’s that. So, I think that's the mentality that everyone showed up with today. But also very confident, which was nice."
On who his success comment was directed towards:
"It was just off of my chest. I definitely don’t think I’m the smartest guy and I’m not trying to be humble, but it's hard to stop my brain when I'm up here. I want to do well and I want to do right by these guys. I wanted to get it off my chest because I had a lot of thoughts about it. Like I said, Blake Burke and [Christian Moore] and Zander have been a part of that team, if you tally up the win percentage here, I don't think even Todd Helton, as great as he was, was able to do that. It doesn’t come easy. Blake takes more swings than anybody. I get interviews and people chant my name because Blake Burke can hit. I'm not doing anything but putting him in the lineup. That’s what you would do, too. So it just bothered me, and after the loss it's been worse. You guys have to do your job, but I think it's more appropriate that that stuff comes to me."
On how rewarding it is to him for this team to experience Omaha:
"It's awesome. Omaha is great. You want to be able to check that box. In order to make it a good trip you continue to make progress as a team. I'm still close with those guys at Arkansas. Clay's (Goodwin) over there. I texted him about today. There's a lot on the line, and you want to win but the thing you don't want to lose is another day with the guys, another trip with the guys, another bus trip, or another plane, or an hour delay where Zander does something goofy. It's the type of team you don't want to be robbed of that extra day, extra moment or extra hour with your guys. Fortunately, this will mean we get to press on and do that. Peyton Manning needs to call an audible as well. Again, when you show up to the park you are probably going to see something new happen in the sport of baseball during the course of that game. Then you can either win or lose. Unless they cancel the game due to COVID. That could have happened, and there still would have been the same amount of love among the group. We would have needed to find a different way to spend time for two or three days with one another. Then we would look back, to our degree, and would have seen all the things we have achieved on paper but also things behind the scenes that no one will know. A win gives you an exhilarating thrill for quite a while if it's one like this. Sometimes, just for a night, but you can't take away that teammate stuff I mentioned earlier. Regardless of how things go from this point forward, that will go on for as long as we're alive."
On what it means to him getting to go back to Omaha:
"It means everything to me. Ever since I was six years old, I’ve been going to games. It’s been a dream of mine to go since I was a little kid. Being a part of a team and being one of the reasons we are going back to Omaha is everything I could ever ask for. I’m just thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given and made the most of them."
On whether Sunday night lived up to his expectations from when he transferred to Tennessee:
"It's everything that I expected. This is why I made the decision that I did, and why I came here is to win and get back home. That is exactly what we did, and I expect nothing less. We still have a couple more weeks of baseball to play, and it's time to bring home a natty."
On what it was like to watch Zander Sechrist pitch:
"It was another Zander (Sechrist) outing. There’s nothing like it. He's going to compete every inning, every pitch, and that's exactly what he did. He knows how to pitch. He knows this game. He knows what works for him. He takes advantage of it, and it showed tonight. I expect nothing less out of him, and he's one of the best arms we have. There was a reason why he was starting today. He didn't disappoint by any means."
On why he was so successful Sunday night:
"Just building off and getting momentum from the last outings. Obviously, going back to Vanderbilt and Florida and not being able to get out of the second or third and assessing and adjusting on pitches. I noticed that I wasn’t cutting the ball as much and wasn’t throwing it with conviction as Coach Vitello likes to say it. Overall, just looking back at different outings, my body language and presence. Putting multiple outings together and comparing them."
On what him and Kirby Connell said to each other when they each exited the field:
"We just said, “I love you brother.” We’ve been through hell and back, thick and thin. That man will be at my wedding, my funeral. He’ll be there. ‘I’m always a call away,’ as he likes to put it. That relationship will never die. I can’t thank him enough."
On the emotions after closing out the fourth inning:
"Going in before that, I thought I had a couple of pitches that were there, which is okay. I'm just competing out there. Luckily enough, I didn't get ahead of myself. I was relaxed and I was able to get the guy out. That fired me up. Bases loaded with two outs, and putting a zero on the board is something a pitcher will like."
On the crowd tonight and how that affected him:
"I think this was one of the loudest crowds I've ever been a part of since I've been here. The Drew Gilbert walk-off homer was either first or second. We had Gourmet Market this morning, and we were joking if we played this game in Neyland Stadium could we sell it out. Some people were like no, we would only get 20,000. Some people were like, yeah, we could sell it out. Some people were like, I don’t know Jim, like 90,000. But overall the crowd was great, and I’m so glad that even when we gave up a run in the first, the energy was still there. Then (Christian Moore) leads off the second half with a homer. I go back out there, basically zero-zero. I put up a zero, then we score four in the bottom of the second. It was unreal."
On whether we knew what was at stake for today's game and what he did during the delay:
"AJ Russell told me, him and Hunter Ensley lived together and they made a quote that was pretty funny. They said, ‘Does Zander know what's going on, or is he too goofy and just not know what's going on at all?’ That's fine with me. It felt like a packed-out Tuesday to be honest, just because I've pitched so many Tuesdays. The only difference was that NCAA Baseball was everywhere. Went on a little Clash of Clans and then a little Subway Surfers. I took my cleats off and treated them like skates. You know, take your skates off. Just kinda chilled and waited for my next task."
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