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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Robert Zeglinski

Tennessee coach Tony Vitello punished his players’ poor hitting by turning their dugout stools upside down

With their season on the line, Tennessee needed a heroic performance during a College World Series elimination game on Tuesday. To beat juggernaut LSU, the Volunteers would need all hands on deck — great pitching and timely hitting at the plate.

They got neither. And the latter poor plate appearances in a 5-0 shutout loss were rather frustrating for Tennessee coach Tony Vitello.

Vitello expressed this frustration by trying to light a spark under his players in one of the most peculiar ways: He turned their dugout stools upside down, taking away the option to sit when not playing.

It, quite obviously, didn’t work.

There’s a certain point of diminishing returns.

For me, if my players weren’t hitting well, I’d probably just chalk it up to bad luck and a poor afternoon. It wasn’t our day or our season. You live, and you learn. But with the Volunteers up against the wall, I suppose Vitello thought he had to pull out all the stops — or, in this case, turn them over — in order to motivate his team.

This was how Twitter reacted to Vitello's stool stunt

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