T. Vitello makes 1st hire on new staff: Pitching coach Frank Anderson

From Houston. Story from 247:

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New Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello has reportedly hired his first assistant coach.

Kendall Rogers, national writer and editor for D1Baseball.com, reported Wednesday evening that the Vols have hired Houston's Frank Anderson as pitching coach.


Anderson, 58, has spent the last five seasons as an assistant at Houston. He was head coach at Oklahoma State from 2004-12 after Division I stops as an assistant at Texas (2000-03) and Texas Tech (1990-99).


Oklahoma State went 329-208 in nine seasons under Anderson, with the Cowboys reaching one NCAA Super Regional and five Regionals.

Houston's pitching staff in 2016 finished second nationally and was first in the American Athletic Conference, for a third straight season, with a 2.48 ERA. Houston ace Andrew Lantrip was No. 1 in the nation in strikeout-to-walk ratio (16.80) and walks allowed per nine innings (0.50).

Vitello during his introductory press conference on Friday was asked about looking for assistant coaches with previous head coaching experience to help fill out his staff.

"I’ll take two of them if I can," Vitello said. "Whether it’s someone from Tennessee or not, I just want to get the guys who I can walk in my office every day and say this is the best team I can put together.

"With each of the positions that are available, my job is for people to say that guy is the best coach in his field arguably in the country. That is a reasonable goal.

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He's off to a really strong start. I'm hoping he can turn this thing around for us boys. I like his enthusiasm and I'm excited to see what he's going to be able to do for us in terms of recruiting.