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5 hours ago
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This weekend on Rocky Top was set up to be a fantastic series between two top-15 teams in all of college baseball. The Auburn Tigers came into Knoxville ready to compete, but the first couple of days ended up derailing the excitement. Friday night’s game began in an absolute monsoon, during which Volunteers ace Liam Doyle threw just one inning. After that, the game was deemed unplayable, effectively wasting Doyle’s outing.
On Saturday, the Vols and Tigers managed to get through nine innings in the second game of the series before it was suspended and pushed to Sunday. Sunday began with the completion of that second game. Doyle was back on the mound in extra innings but was ejected following a scuffle at home plate with an Auburn player.
“My understanding is that only Tennessee's coaches were told of Doyle's ejection. Media had no idea. Auburn had no idea,” Wes Rucker wrote.
That ejection wasn’t revealed until after both Sunday games. However, during the second game, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello was visibly frustrated with a check-swing call. He proceeded to storm around the diamond, voicing his anger at every umpire, resulting in an ejection. After the game, Vitello explained what led to his emotional outburst.
Tony Vitello has been tossed and gives every single umpire a piece of his mind
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“Tony Vitello said his ejection in Game Three was sparked by the check-swing call but was in reality a culmination of a lot of things over the weekend,” Rucker posted.
Vitello is an outstanding coach known for being fiercely loyal to his team. The Vols have been struggling, and while the weekend was frustrating, his actions appeared to be an effort to ignite a spark in his players. Unfortunately, that spark quickly fizzled out as Auburn went on to win 8-1, handing Tennessee their fourth series loss in the last five. Vitello will now need to find a way to rally his team with tournament time fast approaching.
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