Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was at the center of yet another heated college baseball brouhaha on Saturday night in Hoover, Alabama. The SEC’s most outspoken skipper, who has become the conference’s greatest villain as result of his brash, no-nonsense attitude, blamed it all on Mississippi State.
It was actually surprising that the Bulldogs’ pitching coach was not ejected from the college baseball game for his role in the incident because he left the dugout.
Things got testy during the fifth inning during a five-run inning for the Bulldogs! The Vols went to the bullpen. Their head coach joined his infield on the mound as they waited on the next pitcher to run in.
In that moment, the next batter started to chirp at Vitello.
If you know anything about the 45-year-old, Tennessee’s head coach wasn’t going to let that go unchecked and shouted right back. In that moment, Mississippi State pitching coach Jake Gautreau came storming out of the dugout. Vitello and a few of his players charged right for him.
Both coaches had to be separated!
Lots of boos from Miss. State as Tony Vitello and the #Vols have quite the exchange with the Bulldogs. pic.twitter.com/Cdq6nYNhl3
— Paige Dauer (@PaigeDauerFDP) May 25, 2024
Tony Vitello blamed Mississippi State.
Vitello is in his seventh season with the Volunteers and can be directly attributed with an impressive turnaround of the program in Knoxville. He is a fantastic recruiter. He is equally as good as a coach.
Tennessee reached the College World Series in two of the last three years. It is on pace to do so again as the No. 1 seed in the Southeastern Conference tournament and the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
A win over Mississippi State on Friday night moved Vitello’s team one step closer to an SEC title and added to its already impressive resumé. He placed all of the blame on the opponents for what went down in the fifth inning.
Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis wrote it off as “just talking back and forth” that “probably got out of control.” His players echoed that sentiment.
Vitello’s comments may not go over well in the Magnolia State. He doesn’t care!
His vantage point is his vantage point. People may disagree. That’s fine.
Regardless of how things went down in reality, it was chippy!