Head coach Josh Elander is giving the ball to two-way star Blaine Brown Tuesday afternoon as Tennessee hosts UNC Asheville in its first midweek game of the 2026 season.
Brown was the top player in Tennessee baseball’s season-opening series against Nicholls because of his success at the plate. The Rice transfer hit eight-for-14 with three home runs, one double, five RBIs and a walk.
After dominating at the plate in the season’s opening weekend, Brown is getting his first chance on the mound. While Tennessee lists him as the starting pitcher, he will likely be a one inning opener. It’s the same pitching role that Brown was in during Tennessee’s final preseason scrimmage.
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“So he opened up the game and he was 93-95 (mph) with over seven foot of extension, really kind of cutting it loose,” Elander said of Brown. “That (velocity) ticked up a little bit. Then that gives him the freedom to then kind of just go to DH, so take focus, go get us some outs. So there’s some opener capabilities there. Full confidence in him being able to start.
“But then also, I like the idea of, hey, maybe he comes in out of left field at one point. Again, there’s a lot of options we can do there, but a lot of that with Blaine will just be communicating with him on how he’s feeling. It’s just dynamic talent on both sides of the ball.”
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In that scrimmage, Brown allowed one hit while striking out two batters. Brown pitched 4.1 innings as a freshman at Rice last season, posting a 20.77 ERA with 12 walks. The rising sophomore was inconsistent pitching this fall but did show improvements with his command.
Tennessee will likely use an abundance of pitchers against the Bulldogs. The Vols only used eight pitchers over the weekend against Nicholls and will try to work in as many others as possible in the first midweek game of the season.
First pitch between Tennessee and UNC Asheville is at 4 p.m. ET Tuesday afternoon. The SEC Network+ is streaming the game.
