Tony Vitello on Saturday will lead No. 1 national seed Tennessee against Jim Schlossnagle and No. 3 Texas A&M in the College World Series best-of-three-game series. Both programs will be gunning for their first-ever national college baseball championship.
But, 14 years ago, Schlossnagle and Vitello weren’t coaches vying against the other for a college baseball national championship: They were aligned and coaching in the same dugout, after Schlossnagle hired Vitello as his recruiting coordinator for the TCU baseball program.
Schlossnagle, the former TCU baseball coach — who left the program to take over at Texas A&M beginning with the 2022 season — announced Vitello’s hiring from Missouri as the recruiting coordinator for the Horned Frogs on July 19, 2010. Vitello had played for the Tigers from 2000-02 before joining as a volunteer assistant in 2003. He was promoted to full-time assistant in 2004, primarily as the pitching coach. Baseball America highly touted Vitello’s recruiting, as he regularly brought in classes that ranked in the top 25…