Tennessee baseball took care of business in its first midweek game of the season, knocking off UNC Asheville 10-3 on Tuesday evening. The Vols fell behind early but responded well and coasted to the victory.
First-year head coach Josh Elander met with the media following the game and discussed balancing Blaine Brown as a two-way, Cameron Appenzeller’s performance and more. Here’s everything Elander said.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Earns Midweek Victory Over UNC Asheville
On what the plan is for Blaine Brown on the mound moving forward
“I just want to get into where he gets as many touches on the mound where he’s able to get his full routine in. We’re kind of balancing. It’s a little bit of plus-minus of when do you take BP (batting practice)? How much BP do you take? How do you mix in the offense versus the pitching, but he has some comfort there. I thought he was really, really good today attacking the strike zone. Threw a couple good changeups. Good sliders, too. We’ll continue to lengthen him out, but he’s such a special talent. You got to be kind of delicate about how you attack it with him.”
On if Blaine Brown was stretched out enough to pitch another inning on Tuesday
“100%, yeah. He is. We just wanted to be very specific with the task today. I want you to attack these first three hitters and then go in and do your thing with the bat. So, he executed that, and then I’ll get with Ren (pitching coach Josh Reynolds) and the rest of the crew and see what the plan is for next week.”
On what he likes about Blaine Brown being an opener
“What’s not to like, right? He’s left-handed. It’s 95-96 miles an hour. Some competitiveness and then he’s got some metrics. It’s like seven foot extension, so it’s going to play hotter even (more) than the velo (velocity) says. Just the way you attack the strike zone. We just wanted to be a little more athletic and he’s done that with Ren (pitching coach Josh Reynolds), on the mound. He’s such a dynamic athlete. Loose and we just want him to do the same things he does on the offensive side on the pitching side. I think today was a good start with that.”
On if Blaine Brown was thought to be more of a pitcher out of high school and how he has grown as a pitcher since then
“Just the more you can touch the mound, the better. The more it’s going to evolve over the course of time. But he’s just such a good athlete. Want him to keep what makes him good on the offensive side. I think it can help him on the defensive side, too, or the pitching side rather. It’s real stuff. It’s real. It’s not just a guy that gets up there and throws. He’s got a plan and he’s trying to execute. He did really well tonight.”
On Tyler Myatt getting the start at second base and if that could be a long-term position for him
“We’ll see. We always talk about versatility, right? We got a lot of guys that can play on the dirt, but with Manny (Marin) playing it safe there, it gives some guys some opportunity to see what they can do. I don’t think Myatt gets enough credit for his ability on defense, whether it be third or second. He’s come a long way with coach Kiv (Ross Kivett) and put in a lot of work there. So, fully confident with getting him in there. He’s just swinging the bat so well behind the scenes and attacking each day and making adjustments. Hits the ball down the left field line. He did the same thing in a live AB (at-bat) earlier this week. So, he’s showing some real aptitude and being able to make those adjustments, which heading into SEC play, that’s the name of the game. You got to be able to adjust in the chess match. And he’s doing some things very well right now.”
On Jay Abernathy having a three-hit night, him getting thrown out at home trying to score on a Little League home run
“We’re just playing baseball there, right? That’s kind of like an organic play. And I always tell our guys, be aggressive, not reckless. Some people may say— I got 100% support. They’re gonna make a play like that, a back corner fade to home plate and get a guy that, we’re just playing hard. Same with Reese. Again, we do our homework on the outfield arms. We just want to force them to play catch, right? So what is that line? And get right up against it. And every now and then there’s going to be some outs on the bases, but over the course of 56 games, we always keep track. We’re in the positive category about stealing those extra 90 feet when we can.”
On getting five combined hits from Jay Abernathy and Ariel Antigua at the bottom of the lineup
“It’s massive. I mean, again, they’re more than capable of doing it again. Jay too took some good swings, hit some balls to the track. I think he’s capable of being a great player in this league. There’s no doubt about it. He’s always shown flashes. And just want to let him settle, right? Get him in the lineup, let him do his thing, and little bit of a new position running around in center field. But Arial too, again, he takes some really good swings. Did some work with Chuck (Jeroloman) this week to work on some posture stuff and let the ball travel a little bit better. So again, we’re all just trying to stack good days around here, but those guys are fully capable. But when you get those two on base and you roll the three big leaguers back-to-back coming up with Henry, Levi and Blaine, you feel pretty good about it.”
On if he learned anything about Cameron Appenzeller struggling early then getting on a role
“Yeah, I don’t think it was really struggling. Again, I think it’s just, he’s been a starter his whole life, right? So he’s getting used to, how do we get him prepared for different roles to have success? And again, he was attacking the strike zone, right? It’s not like he’s out there walking two, three, four guys. And again, I got no issues. It was a tighter zone tonight. I thought it was fair because that’s how it’s going to be an SEC. But at the same time, like, I don’t have any concerns with him, man, he’s pretty special.”
On if he is seeing more true two-way baseball players when he is out recruiting
“I think there always is a bunch, right? And it can be tricky when you’re recruiting, because guys, there’s more of them right that do it on the road, but it’s like, you have to have — it’s kind of the guessing game of like, are they really good at both? Or are they pretty good at each? And which one do they kind of evolve into, right? And I think each guy is mutually exclusive, but there’s probably five guys a year that are pretty famous that can do it. I mean, one that comes to mind is Kruz Schoolcraft, you know, obviously who never made it to campus. And Billy Carlson, those guys were dynamic athletes that could impact the ball on the offensive side and then run it up to 98-100 miles an hour. So again, there’s not a ton of them, right? But some of them sneak to school, and Blaine was just a little bit of a late bloomer, right? And, my goodness, I’m thankful he’s here on campus right now.”
On how Tennessee’s two-way players manage their time
“Well, I think it just comes down to communication. That’s something we take a lot of pride in, in this building, whether it be our staff and how we attack each day. But like, even with Appy, who’s not even a two-way, we’re having to move his list, and Keegan’s (Knoll) been amazing with that. But you know, Blaine will lift one day, maybe with the position players, or hey, he gets a lot of pitches, we’ll move him to another day. Just making sure that they’re in a position where they have a sustainable workload, right? But then we’re also monitoring with a lot of different things in house, but communication is the key. But also, too, just having a real conversation like this. Like, ‘Hey, how (are) you feeling today? Do you need one more day?’ Or, ‘Hey, I’m feeling great, let’s take some more swings’ So I think that’s the key to doing it the right way.”
On Manny Marin injury status
“Manny’s hand looks great. The swelling has really, really gone down. So feel confident about him going into the weekend. Obviously, want him to be able to play catch and go through a full practice day, so we’ll see what Woody (trainer Jeff Wood) says tomorrow going in. But we got a few days. We got a good team coming in town this weekend.”
On Garrett Wright and Blake Grimmer injury status
“Garrett is on track. Again, that hamate (bone) is kind of a pain tolerance deal, right? But he’s taking swings. He took in and out today, so making some progress there.”
“And then Grimmer, too, is same deal, just kind of plugging away, no major updates there. But again, we’ll play it safe with those guys, because all those guys, I feel like they’re more than capable of being plugged in the lineup and having success.”
On Brandon Arvidson injury status
“Threw (Monday) and looked really, really good again. So we’ll see. He probably wanted to pitch tonight, but he’ll be back sooner rather than later.”
On how Stone Lawless has improved as a hitter since he got to Tennessee
“He’s just a clubhouse favorite, right? I mean, it goes back to when, he was not ready when he got here. He needed time defensively and then just all encompassing. But he’s always been really mature and a great teammate. So that’s why we traveled him, because he was just, you had to have him there, because he was a great dude.
“I think just really the thing I’ve noticed from third base, a lot of — that’s my frame of reference right now during the year — if you look at his takes right now versus when he was young, it’s like he’s in no hurry to jump at the baseball. He’s letting the ball travel. He’s using the whole field, but right now he’s punishing mistakes, which I think that’s what happens as you get older. You get a little bit more feel on how to navigate at bats and how guys are going to try to get you out. But again, just a great self awareness, amazing teammate, and always excited to see him have success.”
On if there was a strategy to Tennessee stacking lefties on the mound against UNC Asheville
“No, I mean, we’ve had some sickness running through the clubhouse, so some of those guys, you know, we want to just get them out there. There was really no plan when it came to that, like, hey, it’s got to be left handed. But we almost went down the line. Reyn (Josh Reynolds) and I talked about it. Hey, let’s go with this strategy. Get this guy (to) this many pitches, and Chandler Day was warming up. That was the one. So we didn’t complete the effort all the way around, but wanted to get B-Fred (Brady Frederick) back out there before we go into our next series this weekend.”
