Tennessee baseball coach Josh Elander joined SportsTalk with John Wilkerson and Vince Ferrara on Thursday morning with the the season opening series against Nicholls just over three weeks ago.
Elander discussed the success of former Tennessee baseball players in professional baseball, young players on Tennessee’s team and much more. Here’s everything Elander said Thursday.
More From RTI: Two Tennessee Players Land On D1Baseball Preseason All-American Teams
On the first pitch banquet being pushed back to Feb. 7
“No, we’re definitely excited (that) we’re able to still get that event in. It’s really become one of the best events we have for preseason. So really just wanting to move back to be safe. Really, that was the main thing. And hopefully everybody, this ice and snow stays out of here this week for everybody, but that’ll be a great event right before the start of the season.”
On Hunter Ensley retiring, him having success in a different field
“There’s no doubt about it. I mean, just a self made guy. That’s what comes to mind when I think of Hunter Ensley and a guy that was loyal to the T and loves Tennessee, grew up a Vol fan, stuck with the original coaching change when Coach V took over for Coach Serrano, and stuck with our staff and a guy that really played a little bit, played not at all, played a little bit, got a little bit better, worked through his surgery and then is now a national champion and gave me one of the best memories of my life for that slide. I know some Vol fans would probably agree, so he’s a winner. He’ll have success whenever he does, and excited to see what’s next for him.”
On seeing former players have success in professional baseball
“It’s huge. I mean, that’s what these guys want. I mean, again, to be able to compete for championships and then ultimately be on your way to the big leagues. And Coach Kivett showed me something yesterday that we had by far the most signing bonus last year for any of the programs in all of college baseball. So I think that’s a good feather in our cap, but it was awesome. Yesterday we actually had Blake Burke and (Andrew) Fisch(er) running around together on the field, taking some ground balls. So some Brewers fans were probably wishing they were here because that might be their three and four-hole here in a year or two. But it would be amazing to see those two guys play together because the ball flies up there a little bit, and those two are going to run into some but it’s nice to see now. It wasn’t just kind of a year or two year period where, I think some other people may have forgotten, like Chad Dallas is coming back. I talked to him the other day and coming back from Tommy John. So there’s some more guys on the way. But now we have a big period of time where guys have had success, not only here, but into pro baseball, and that is a big part of recruiting that people look for.”
On Andrew Fischer playing first base last season when he wanted to play third, guys being selfless, if he sees that with the 2026 team
“I do. I think it starts with the recruiting. We always talk about versatility and creating value for not only the team, but also for the individual, right? And especially with the condensed rosters in college baseball, guys need to be able to play multiple positions, or even we have some two-way guys this year that gives you some length in your roster. So, again, Fisch is a good example. Came in, really wanted to play third, but got better at first, and now he’s able to shift over there (to third base). But you know, Dean (Curley) played all over the field. Manny (Marin) has played all over the field. Jay (Abernathy) and Newie (Chris Newstrom) right now are kind of bouncing between center field and middle infield. So, again, it gives us a lot of options with right and left. And then now we have so much information to go into. Zach Stovall, does a great job for us, but just match up wise, we can do some things. And I just think you have to communicate at a high level with those guys, and also practice intentionally. Making sure they understand, hey, this is why we’re moving you to this position, or whatever it may be. And there’s been good buy-in on that.
“And I just go back to our ‘24 team, obviously won the national championship, but again, to go with an opener in (Chris) Stamos, who maybe probably wanted a little bit more length at times, but was just excited to get the ball. And again, Zander (Sechrist) forced his way and really saved us down the stretch with how he threw the ball. It was, again, still compete, go get what you want, but also to like, understanding like, hey, let’s put the Vols first, and they know they got the guys will be taken care of individually as well.”
On why they recruit so many high school shortstops
“Usually those guys, the best shortstops can go play the infield, can play corner spots. It’s easy for them to kind of move around. But again, now there’s so many different teams in the summer. I mean, some of these tournaments have 150-plus teams. So they are spread out a little bit. But again, we just want athleticism. That’s what we’re looking for, and then we’re doing our homework on who’s going to play hard, who’s going to act right. Those are things that are very important. But again, that athleticism is probably the number one thing that we look for when we’re recruiting. And then you want to have some right-handed, left-handed balance with swinging the bat. Guys who usually can move laterally on the dirt, can take control of the field, have some leadership, or some good vocal qualities, those are traits that can have success all over the field.”
On the reps that Levi Clark received as a freshman, if there’s a spot that seems to favor him at this point in the preseason
“There’s a group of those guys that we’re just really excited. I mean, Levi was one of the best hitters in the country out of the gate last year. I mean, I think he was hitting like .440 through the first 15 or 20 games. The SEC is tough. There’s always a little bit of an adjustment there. But he’s just been tremendous with his leadership and professionalism, how he goes about his business, like the right mentality, a really good guy for our guys who just, ‘hey, just watch Levi, see what he’s doing.’ Kind of reminds me of, we used to say with Trey Lipscomb all the time, just do what Trey Lipscomb does and you’ll be just fine. And it’s worked out well for Trey.
“(Levi has) done some things offensively, like added a little bit more rhythm. I think that’ll help give him some adjustability, because he’s going to be circled a lot now as the Andrew Fischer or the Blake Burke, like, ‘Hey, this is the guy we got to be careful with.’ But I think his discipline has gone up in the box. I think the maturity, but having played in this league, I mean, Manny (Marin) and Newy (Chris Newstrom) and Jay (Abernathy), like that sophomore class that was our first number one overall recruiting class, our expectation is for those guys to make a jump. Technically underclassmen, but we want them to play like upperclassmen, because they know the league and have been on the road and played in a Super Regional. Besides Omaha, there’s really not a ton of boxes that they haven’t seen to this point.”
On what has jumped out about Tennessee baseball’s freshman class
“They’ve been great. On the position side, Evan Hankins, I think, is a guy that’s going to be pretty special. I mean, just real power potential. Nate Eisfelder can really swing the bat, just has hitter’s hands. Just, man, that guy can hit, just kind of watching him move around.
“And then on the mound with Appy (Cameron Appenzeller) and Ethan (Baiotto), just different looks. Lefties, righties, sinkers, ride fastballs, and again, there’s athleticism there. And then Taylor Tracy’s that two-way mold, where it’s kind of backwards, where he throws lefty and hits righty, but again, he’s got some juice from the right side, and he’ll attack with some competitiveness on the mound. So it’s been cool. Those guys, when they go home after the first semester, when they come back, usually you see a little bit of a jump, because they’re not as kind of feeling things out. They’ve been through a semester. Usually the team is fully integrated by that time, so some of those guys are making a little bit of a job trying to chase those older guys down, which I tell them every day, go get what you want. So I’m excited to see how it plays out.”
On Tennessee’s practice schedule this week with a winter storm looming this weekend
“So today (Thursday, Jan. 22) will be our first scrimmage. We’re really excited about it. I think we’re gonna have about 45, 50 degrees and some sunshine. So we’ll take that any day and every day around here right now. The big dogs are throwing today. We’ll have (Tegan) Kuhns versus (Landon) Mack to start us off. We have them set up like, hey, we want to be competing basically across the field at all times. So that’ll be a good little start for us today and then we’ll go again tomorrow, and then we get to the weekend, we’ll see how it goes. We might be forced indoors a little bit, but I know our guys are kind of chomping at the bit to get going. And really, like, if you take the bird’s-eye view from the past, we really haven’t even started scrimmaging yet, but the NCAA has changed the rule, where it’s opened it up, we’ve been running around the field a bunch, and really the focus has been protecting 90 feet and defense, getting those guys kind of moving around. So that’s where the majority of our reps have gone. But now it’s a little bit of competition time, so hopefully some separation. That’s something I’m going to talk with the team about today. Like, ‘hey, there’s nothing wrong, you can be a good teammate, but also try to separate yourself from amongst the team, too.’ So there’s a right or wrong way to do that, but our guys know the right way.”
On the scrimmage being open to the public, but fans needing to watch from the porches
“100%. Down the right field and left-field line, they’re finishing up the left field line. I think Vol fans will be blown away. The entrance is going to be amazing. Just the esthetics of outside the stadium and what they’ve done, so that would be the right-field side, that’s a work in progress right now. They’re finishing that. Our right-field corner will now be our player entrance. We’re really excited for recruiting, where we can highlight guys like Chris Burke, and Todd Helton, and Drew Gilbert. That’s not completely finished yet, but there’s a gate kind of to just right center field towards the scoreboard, and you can sneak up to the porches that way. Just make sure you keep your head on a swivel. We might have some guys run into some during (batting practice) and in the game.”
