What Tony Vitello and the Vols had to say after clinching a portion of the conference championship
Tennessee concluded the 2024 regular season with an impressive sweep, securing a 4-1 victory over South Carolina, marking their third sweep in conference play and sixth overall for the season.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt defeated Kentucky 12-4 on the road. Consequently, Kentucky and Tennessee finished the regular season tied atop the Southeastern Conference standings with identical 22-8 records. Although both teams share the title of co-SEC champions, Tennessee will enter the conference tournament next week as the 1-seed, courtesy of owning the tiebreaker due to a series win.
This marks the fifth conference championship for Tennessee in program history and the first since 2022. Additionally, Saturday’s events also secured the ninth SEC East Divisional title in program history, the first since 2022. The Vols are aiming to secure their fifth SEC Tournament championship in their 20th appearance in Hoover and only the second as the No. 2 seed in its current format. Moreover, Tennessee has now claimed the SEC East title for the third time in the past four seasons.
As the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, Tennessee will commence play in the afternoon session on Wednesday in Hoover, around 5:30 pm Eastern Time for the third game of the day. The Wednesday contest will be televised on the SEC Network.
Here are some reactions to Tennessee’s SEC Championship:
Tony Vitello commented, “Yeah, I mean that’s a lot to take in. That’s very difficult to do. Congrats to anybody in this league that finished with a winning record. It ain’t easy. And I think one thing that’s reflected with this week in Hoover is if you can finish in the top four, you’ve set yourself up pretty nicely.”
Zander Sechrist expressed, “I’m blessed enough to have been a part of this for a while now, so it’s just another thing under the belt. And obviously we got Hoover coming up, which is just a fun place to be at ’cause there’s a Dave & Buster’s to the left of the hotel.”
Cal Stark added, “You know, it’s always a good feeling being at the top. So we were all in there [film room], jumping around, cheering, hollering – that’s our first goal that we got. We got a couple more left that keep striving towards.”
Additionally, there were reflections from various players on their SEC Championship:
Zander Sechrist remarked, “It just feels good. It feels good. It feels like I got my confidence back a little bit at least. But obviously, you know, like I said, baseball’s a weird game.”
Cal Stark praised the fans, stating, “The best fans in the country. They fill this place up every single weekend, whether it’s the first weekend of the season or the last.”
