'I was screaming at their coaches' - Tennessee's Tony Vitello explains chippy post-game moment against Alabama

The Tennessee Vols and the Alabama Crimson Tide shared a chippy post-game moment last week after Bama's win in game one of the three-game series between the two programs. 

After the Crimson Tide's 6-5 win last Thursday in Tuscaloosa, Alabama's players took what Vols head coach Tony Vitello called a "victory lap", which included a route that went right by UT's post-game huddle in the outfield. 

At first, it appeared that Vitello yelled at some of Alabama's players. Vitello, however, clarified on Wednesday during an appearance on The Tony Basilio Show that he was actually yelling at Alabama's coaches. 

"I was screaming at their coaches," explained Vitello. "They (the players) were in a position where they need coaches to act as a barrier or bodyguard. So, in my opinion, if you're doing something that requires that, maybe it's not a good idea to do it to begin with, but we got our own problems here. And as a matter of fact, what they were doing was celebrating a victory. If we didn't want them to celebrate, we shouldn't have lost."

"They did a victory lap around us," continued Vitello. "I recruited (Alabama coach) Rob (Vaughn) and our video coordinator (Sean McCann) signed him (at Kansas State). Ross Kivett (Vols assistant coach) played for him. Josh Reynolds, who also works for us, coached him. I recommended him to be hired a couple of different times. I would have hired him here. So I've got about as much respect for the program as you can imagine. I'll just say it out loud, I don't think their celebration they have with their students is appropriate when it requires them to basically do a victory lap around our team when we're meeting in right field."

SEC baseball games tend to get chippy -- it's part of what makes the conference great. And that's especially true when coaches and players on each side of the field know each other pretty well. 

A "motivated" Tennessee team responded by winning the next two games to take the series from Alabama. That's the best response that the Volunteers could've had to the chirping that went down after game one.