Tennessee baseball head coach Josh Elander met with the media following the Vols’ 2-1 series-evening loss to Kent State Saturday in Knoxville.
Tennessee’s bats fell flat, going 5-32 at the plate including an abysmal 0-15 with runners on and 0-11 with runners in scoring position. A Henry Ford fifth-inning error also proved to be costly in the low-scoring affair.
Elander shared his thoughts on what plagued Tennessee in the loss, and also what he saw from starting pitcher Landon Mack and reliever Brandon Arvidson. Mack turned in an above-average start, overcoming shaky defense behind him to allow only two runs while striking out a career-high 11 batters.
Arvidson made his 2026 debut and struck out five of eight batters faced. After giving up a double to his first batter, he faced the minimum for the remainder of the game.
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For a full transcript of what Elander said, click HERE.
Watch Elander’s entire post-game press conference below.
“I think you find out a lot about your team after the first loss,” Elander said when asked how he wants his team to respond Sunday. “We’ve made it a big theme around here to show up on Sundays, better than we did last year in ‘25. So, this is our first test, and hopefully we get Reese [Chapman] back in the building tomorrow, but guys should be bouncing around and ready to rock ‘n’ roll because I know Kent State will.”
