San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello keeps a close eye on a few members of the Colorado Rockies, and it has nothing to do with scouting reports or a division rivalry.

Vitello, in his first season overseeing the Giants after spending eight seasons building a college baseball powerhouse at the University of Tennessee, coached several major league players during his time with the Volunteers. Among them are three current members of the Rockies — outfielder Jordan Beck, starting pitcher Chase Dollander and relief pitcher Seth Halvorsen.

Dollander said Friday he wasn’t surprised when the Giants shocked many in Major League Baseball by hiring Vitello as their manager before the 2026 season without him having any previous MLB experience.

The Giants opened a three-game series at Coors Field on Friday.

“He’s obviously one of the best coaches in college, and he built that program from the ground up,” said Dollander, selected by the Rockies with the ninth overall pick in the 2023 draft. “He believed in me, trusted me and gave me a chance to pitch in the SEC and be able to actually learn and develop. There are a lot of things I’m grateful for. He helped my career a lot.”

Halvorsen said it was some of the advice that Vitello gave him at Tennessee that still sticks with him today when he takes the mound.

“He was so helpful and had a bunch of one-liners that he gave here and there,” said Halvorsen, selected by Colorado in the seventh round of the 2023 MLB draft. “I took some of them and applied them in my mindset. Compete. Attack. Be ready to go. Those are still things I do today.

“He’s a good coach and a good leader of a group of guys. He obviously wants to win here and we obviously want to beat him, but I think he’ll be very good at his job.”

Vitello, entering Friday with a 22-34 mark at the San Francisco helm, smiled when asked about his former players who are now wearing purple. He also gave a great deal of credit for the pitchers’ success to Frank Anderson, who left Tennessee with Vitello to become San Francisco’s director of major league pitching.

“Frank deserves a lot of credit for those two guys,” Vitello said Friday of Dollander and Halvorsen. “I got the joy of just being around the byproduct of two really hard-working guys, and they got a lot of really important outs for us. I was kind of more on the high-five side of things than anything.”

When it comes to Beck, however, Vitello said the 38th overall pick of the 2022 MLB draft was a special player who helped Tennessee transform into a national power.

“Jordan was a fun one, because Coach (Josh) Elander identified him. We recruited him for a long time before he committed, and you got to see him get stronger and stronger,” Vitello said. “As a player, he embodied what we were trying to turn the program into: Be athletic, be incredibly competitive, be tough, and that’s one of the reasons why he was a leader on probably the most talented group we had.

“He was talented. He embodied everything we were hoping to do there.”

Dollander said some of the characteristics he appreciated most in Vitello were some also shared by Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer.

“He (Vitello) is a ride-or-die guy. He will have your back through it all,” Dollander said. “’Schaeff’ is the same way. He has your back through everything. He’s one of the best guys I have seen with that.”

Rockies 8, Giants 6

What happened: Colorado was 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position before Hunter Goodman slammed a three-run home run with one out in the ninth inning to tie the game 6-6. Ezequiel Tovar followed with a two-run walk-off shot for his first career walk-off hit, capping a five-run final frame to stun San Francisco.

On the mound: Entering the game with a 10.03 ERA in five previous starts, Michael Lorenzen retired six of the first seven batters he faced before struggling through the final portions of his 3 2/3-inning outing. His final line showed five hits and three runs allowed while walking two and striking out two.

At the plate: Before his game-winning heroics, Tovar hit his third home run of the season, a two-run blast in the eighth inning that traveled 441 feet over the center-field wall. Tovar has now hit safely in 14 of his last 18 games since May 8. He finished 2-for-4, one of eight Rockies to have at least one hit on the night.

What’s next: Ryan Feltner (1-1, 6.30 ERA) will return from the injured list to make his first start since April 23. He will match up against San Francisco’s Adrian Houser (2-4, 5.30 ERA) at Coors Field Saturday at 7:10 p.m.