Some college baseball fans are going wild over the reaction by Tony Vitello to his Tennessee Volunteers beating St. Bonaventure by the run rule on Saturday.
Vitello’s Vols are the defending national champions, and their 2025 team seems like it might be even stronger than last year’s championship squad. The Vols have opened the season 16-0, winning eight of their games by the run rule, and 11 by double digits.
On Saturday, Vitello’s Vols were at it again and beat St. Bonaventure 11-1 in 7 innings in their game at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. Tennessee entered the bottom of the 7th inning leading 7-1. They ended the contest on a walk-off grand slam by third baseman Manny Marin.
What’s interesting is fans noted head coach Vitello’s reaction to the grand slam. He did not seem happy because he knew that meant the game would end. You can see him around the 7-second mark sort of shrug disappointedly.
Manny called game.#GBO 🍊 pic.twitter.com/8s9FUa74I2
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) March 9, 2025
Vitello was disappointed that meant the end of the game after just seven innings. He wanted to play the extra two innings so he could give more players on his team a chance to see game action.
Watch from like 0:07-0:11 in this video.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) March 9, 2025
Tony Vitello HATES the run rule as much as some coaches hate losing, because Vitello's roster is so deep and so many guys need reps.
He can't hide his frustration despite one of his guys hitting a grand slam.
Cinema. https://t.co/oQnFGEr9uV
The series was a brutal one for St. Bonaventure. They lost by a combined score of 36-3 over the three games. Friday’s 12-0 affair went the full nine innings. But the head coaches agreed to put the run rule in effect for Saturday and Sundays games, which were both called early due to Tennessee leading by at least 10 runs after seven innings.
Not only does Vitello want the players on his roster to get more practice, but he also believes teams can come back from down 10 runs.
