Tennessee baseball head coach Josh Elander met with the media following the Vols’ 12-5 loss to UCLA in Arlington at Globe Life Field.
Elander discussed Tennessee’s late-game collapse on the mound and what need to improve moving forward. Additionally, Elander shared his thoughts on starting pitcher Tegan Kuhns’ outing, Chris Newstrom’s big day at the plate and more.
To WATCH Elander’s press conference, click HERE.
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See everything Elander said following the loss below.
On what went wrong in the final innings after the four-run sixth inning:
“I thought Tegan [Kuhns] threw the ball well to start the game. [Their] guys put some good swings on it there, kind of a tip of the cap or whatever it may be. But again, when you don’t compete over the white, and you walk guys, hit by pitches, free 90s all over the place – I think we had eight-plus after Tegan came out of the game – that’s never going to be a recipe for success.”
On if Will Gasparino’s leadoff homer in the 7th was a by-product of a long wait for Tegan Kuhns and what he saw from Brandon Arvidson:
“I think you maybe go that way to look at it, but again, Tegan was throwing the ball really well versus Gasparino, and we liked the matchup. That’s one we talked about last night if we got there again that third time through. It’s a tip of the cap, two good players going at it, [he] put a good swing on it. Ball was really carrying today.
“Arv (Brandon Arvidson) came in after that. I thought he did a decent job, just wasn’t as crisp right there. [We] just needed to be a little bit better down the stretch on the mound.”
On what was going well for Tegan when they were going well:
“I think he was competing with four pitches. Had the curveball going, slider was good tonight, threw a couple good right-on-right change-ups – I know Roch (Cholowsky) got a good swing on one down the line – but just competing in the strike zone. If a guy gets tagged and gives up a two-run homer. You can live with that, right? But if they’re not, if they’re feathering pitches around and not throwing with conviction, that’s not something that we can have going on.”
On Henry Ford’s defensive miscues:
“Yeah I think they’re plays that have to be made. And I think he knows he has to make those plays, and we need to do it. I thought Levi (Clark) might have bailed him out on that one. That’s why we reviewed it. But again, those are routine plays that need to be made, and I believe he will moving forward.”
On if the plan is to stick with Henry Ford at third base or if other options will be considered:
“We’re so early in the year, right? We’ve talked about, we just need to play as much as we can, get these guys some reps under their belt. I know Henry is an older player, but that’s a completely new position, and he shows well during the week, he’s done a great job with Kiv (Ross Kivett) with his footwork and playing catch. So, a couple of events here and there, I think he just gets right back to work and we’ll run it back out there again.”
On if he’s having to tell himself to be patient and not tinker too much this early:
“I think so. You want to give guys a chance to prove what they can do. I think (Chris) Newstrom was a good example of that tonight, kind of in and out of the lineup, and then he has what is kind of a coming out party tonight, playing really good defense and swinging the bat well. So, I think when you don’t win, you have to look at everything, from decisions made with the pitching side or who goes where. We have options, but we want to give those guys a chance and give them some runway to have a good enough sample size and make sure we’re making the best decisions to put them in a position to have success.”
On putting Blaine Brown fifth in the lineup…
“We wanted to give him a little bit of a breather. We liked Levi (Clark). Stacking those three lefties. We had a pretty good feel that was kind of how they were going to match it up going to the second guy out of the bullpen. Those guys did really good, even though they had the three back-to-back-to-back. Kind of some reverse split guys with a lot of changeups from the UCLA staff. Blaine – took a good swing, couple of good swings today, right? Feel very confident with him. We will make some adjustments tomorrow.”
On the confidence he had with left on lefty in heart of the order…
“You look at the matchup and there’s a lot of breaking balls from the lefty that came in. It’s an offset look. Something that we practice all the time. You can kind of cut the plate in half and cover one side. I thought our guys did good – Reese (Chapman) included versus that look. It’s the look we wanted but we have to compete a little bit better on the other side of the strike zone.”
On what was better about Chris Newstrom…
“Just playing baseball. That’s it. If you go into it hoping to have success, that’s not a formula for success in this league or against an opponent like UCLA. We want our guys to cut it loose and play ball. It was cool seeing him do that tonight.”
On to approach how to tinker and not tinker…
“It’s a holistic thing. We have information now and kind of look at matchups. You got to look at the lineup and say ‘these are our guys.’ It’s up to them to kind of force our hand one way or the other. When you don’t win, you have to make adjustments. I think that is the key to the whole game. I’ve learned that from all the coaches I’ve been around here. We will mix and match a little bit more tomorrow and we will give the ball to Landon Mack and see how we go.”
