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Tony Vitello notches 300th win at Tennessee in historic fashion
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Tony Vitello and Tennessee baseball are rolling to start their defense of the 2024 national title. On Friday, the Vols beat Samford 5-1 behind a dominant pitching performance.
In fact, Friday’s win was the first of the season for Tennessee that was not of the run-rule variety. The final outcome was still the same for the now 5-0 Vols with 14 strikeouts from Liam Doyle and 20 strikeouts total. Cannon Peebles delivered 2 RBI and a home run to lead the offense, but the win was particularly meaningful for head coach Tony Vitello.
With the win, Vitello now has 300 all-time victories leading the Vols. Already the 3rd-winningest head coach in program history, Vitello becomes the fastest to reach the plateau by a wide margin.
RELATED: Be sure to track the odds as the Vols pursue back-to-back titles with the available Tennessee sports betting apps.
Friday’s game was Vitello’s 412th at the helm, blowing past Rod Delmonico who achieved his 300th win at Tennessee in 501 games. Vitello joins Delmonico and Bill Wright as the only head coaches of the Vols to reach 300 wins, though Vitello has a long way to catch both of those individuals.
Delmonico holds the program record with 699 wins in a career that spanned 18 years. Wright is the only other coach for Tennessee to reach 400 wins with 408 spread mostly across the 1960s and 1970s.
Making the accomplishment all the more impressive is how quickly Vitello covered the last 100 wins of his career. Across the 2023-24 seasons alone, Vitello led the program to 104 wins and just 35 losses, including the program’s first national title last year.
With a hot start to the season, Vitello’s Vols show no sign of slowing down, and that’s scary news for the rest of college baseball. We’ll see if a return trip to defend their College World Series title is in order this summer.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
