The No. 1 overall seed Tennessee Volunteers find themselves in a serious hole Saturday night. The Texas A&M Aggies jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning of their CWS Finals matchup in Omaha, Nebraska. And early in the bottom of the fifth, ESPN’s Kris Budden sat down with Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to get his take.
“I just didn’t play well. We are more or less in the same place. We had the same conversation against Florida State. You know, a couple of mistakes on defense. A couple of pitches that maybe needed to be done a little better. And offensively, it hasn’t been bad, but we’re in a position where we could take this guy (Ryan Prager) out of the game, which would be a huge accomplishment. He is his ace. And he’s pretty good. So, a little bit far from where we need to be,” Vitello explained.
It was his third lineup in the order against Prager. What does your team need to adjust offensively to achieve this and take you out of the game? “I think just shorten the changes. You know, he’ll mess with you. It’s a slow rhythm, very slow and then he mixes it up a lot. And if you overdo it, you’ll get into trouble.”
Just then, Prager was benched in the bottom of the fifth inning. He was replaced by right-hander Josh Stewart. After four innings of work, Prager allowed eight hits and two runs, while striking out six. It will likely be his last game in a Texas A&M uniform.
