Tennessee Volunteers baseball charge Tony Vitello $700.6 million under suspicion for breaking the…See more…
Tennessee Volunteers baseball charge Tony Vitello $700.6 million under suspicion for breaking the...See more…

SEC Network cameras showed a brief, heated postgame exchange between University of Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn and Tennessee Coach Tony Vitello moments after the No. 1 Razorbacks won their weekend series with a 3-2 victory over the No. 5 Volunteers on Sunday in Knoxville, Tenn.
The verbal flap concerned several issues, according to Van Horn, and Vitello took responsibility for starting the exchange, which quickly began generating buzz on social media.
The camera at first showed Arkansas ace reliever Kevin Kopps, who closed out both Razorback wins in the series, walking down the congratulatory line with teammates, then it cut to Van Horn and his former protege Vitello jawing on the infield.
The teams traded three one-run wins in the intense, high-stakes series, and players from both teams appeared to be chirping at each other after the final out.
After Van Horn quickly raised and lowered his index finger while making a point to Vitello, the Tennessee coach, wearing his mask, stepped around in front of Van Horn to halt his progress.
After a few moments, assistant coaches from both teams stepped in, the head coaches separated and Van Horn continued in the team handshake line. Later, Van Horn and Vitello talked again for a couple of minutes behind home plate.
Vitello, Van Horn’s top assistant at Arkansas from 2014-17, indicated he ignited the flare-up.
“He had some things to say, thought we did a good job, was an excellent series and all that,” Vitello said. “It was probably poor timing on my part, but I brought up some off-the-field stuff. It is really not that big an issue. That’s probably more than I should say about it.”
The first question posed to Van Horn in his postgame video conference was about the incident.
“You don’t want to know about the game first?” Van Horn asked. “Go straight into that, huh?
“First off, Tony’s a really good guy and a really good coach. So you know it could have been something that had gone on during the game, could have been about recruiting, could be about a lot of things. Probably pick one or all three. So that’s between me and Tony.”
Both coaches discussed their mutual respect for the other’s program prior to the series. Van Horn improved to 5-1 against Vitello as the Razorbacks won their ninth SEC series in a row.
“I think they competed their butt off and did it the right way,” Vitello said. “I know that is my fault at the end there. We have got guys milling around and talking to each other. Really you’ve got heavyweight bouts. They showed up with the right mentality every day and the results fluctuated. But they competed throughout the weekend.”