By Sean Ryan
CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder
OMAHA, Neb. – Over the past two days, Tony Vitello openly has acknowledged that making in-the-moment decisions on college baseball’s grandest stage is far from easy.
And, similar to when he said he made more wrong decisions than right decisions after his top-ranked Tennessee team escaped Evansville during the Super Regional round, the Volunteers’ coach has questioned his choices with a national title in the balance.
Facing elimination and trailing 1-0 in the top of the sixth inning Sunday, Tennessee catcher Cal Stark showed bunt a couple of times with one out and runners on first and second before working a plus count. On deck, leadoff man Christian Moore, who’s been as hot as the Omaha summer, while Stark, to that point, had gone hitless since arriving in town.
Up in the count against a freshman lefty reliever with 8.2 innings under his belt, Vitello took the bunt off. Stark bounced a ball to third. Five, four, three resulted in two outs and one gnawing decision, at least for Vitello.
“I wanted to throw myself off a ledge there because it looks like, hey, let’s get C-Mo in a position where he can drive in two runs potentially and then you take it off because Cal is in an advantage count,” Vitello said. “I could explain the numbers and all that stuff.
“But the bottom line is you have to make tough decisions over the course of a game. And fans can tweet about them and say this or that. But the one thing, with all due respect, we wouldn’t be here without our fans, they get to do that on Twitter and voice their opinion, and then they get to go to the bars. Because I can hear, it goes all night long. I can hear from my level. And I wish I could do that, to be honest with you, too.”
Instead, he’s ignoring the temporary struggles at the plate to cherish the value of his catcher behind the plate.
Just one inning earlier, Stark executed a back-pick with first baseman Blake Burke to stymie an Aggies threat and keep the Vols within reach at 1-0.
“Cal has been our guy for a couple of years,” Vitello said. “And he’s experienced so much and he know how to work or orchestrate a game from behind that position and be that leader. I don’t know, he’s our Jake Taylor, I guess.”
Which may explain the somewhat-desperation bunt attempt in the sixth. Maybe the hope was for the second-and-third situation Vitello described for the hot-hitting Moore. Or maybe it was for Stark, like Jake Taylor of “Major League” fame to leg out a surprise bunt down the third-base line to load the bases and put the Volunteers in major business.
Stark played a starring role two innings later.
After Tennessee had taken a 2-1 lead on Dylan Dreiling’s two-run missile into the bleachers in right field, the catcher, now 0 for 16 with nine strikeouts in Omaha, Stark stepped up. As he did in the Volunteers’ last elimination game against Evansville, Stark ripped a homer, this time a two-run shot on a hanging slider that gave Tennessee two much-needed insurance runs and a 4-1 lead in the eighth inning.
“Every kid dreams about playing at this stage,” Stark said. “And being able to do it late in the game like that, it was pretty cool and something I’ll never forget.”
Vitello was asked after the game: Why is Stark your guy? Another decision. Another debate.
“Without getting too dramatic on you, he’s a ball player,” Vitello responded. “And he’s an unbelievable kid.”
Vitello will go to bed tonight knowing some decisions worked. Some decisions didn’t. He’ll still probably hear the Tennessee fans, back from the bars and in a more celebratory mood than the previous night. And he’ll probably hear a few Aggies fans, back from the bars after obsessing about what they would have done to hold onto a 1-0 lead to secure a national title.
It goes with the territory. But it doesn’t make it any easier.
“With your decisions, you have to live with it,” Vitello said. “And when the game’s over, we go back to the hotel. And I’ve worked with the guy across the dugout, too. No one’s more invested than him. And we live with it. And you think about it. And then you start preparing for the next day. It’s all you do. So trust me, it means a lot to us, you know what I mean?”