Tennessee baseball head coach Josh Elander met with the media following the Vols’ 5-4 series-clinching win over Wright State Saturday in Knoxville.
Elander discussed Landon Mack’s mixed-bag start, Brayden Krenzel’s elite relief appearance, big days from Reese Chapman and Henry Ford and more.
RECAP: Ford, Chapman Lead Tennessee Baseball to Series-Clinching Win Over Wright State
See everything Elander said below.
On how effective Brayden Krenzel was out of the bullpen in the eighth and ninth innings:
“Just really good again. I mean, up to 93, up to 97, the fastball taking off. I thought the slider was really good. Brayden had a good approach kind of keeping those guys off balance, because credit to Wright State. I mean, they’re taking some comfortable swings across the board. Those guys are really, really taking good swings across the board. I just thought at that point in the game, the way it was going was, ‘Hey, let’s just go to Krenz and see if he can do it like he did down in Texas,’ and thankfully, he did.”
If there were any thoughts about going away from Brayden Krenzel in the ninth inning:
“No, no. To be honest, no. I just said, hey, kind of all the energy was, ‘Hey, Krenzel was going to get it done right there,’ that’s really only where my thought process was and Krenz made it happen.”
On how Brayden Krenzel has grown over his last two outings:
“I think it’s just hoping to have success versus believing you can, right? Those are two different things, and sometimes guys just need more reps under their belt. But, I mean, there was a period – and you guys remember – last year where he was pretty darn good. When he came out, we knew what we were going to get. Then he got the mono that knocked him down a little bit for a while, but he was really good in Fayetteville last year in the Super Regional. He’s checked a lot of boxes, but it’s cool to see him pitching with some mojo and even get a PFP to end the game there.”
How big it was to see Reese Chapman have the swings he had in the game:
“It was great. I think three knocks right there, and then of course everybody would love him to have that fourth one there with the bases loaded. But again, good day to really – I mean, we knew it wasn’t going to be an offensive day just because of the weather. The wind was crazy, even in BP, but for him to shoot that one over the scoreboard, stayed to it right there and left on left. A good sign for him, but we’d like to have a little bit better at that fourth one, and I think he’d say the same thing.”
How different Reese Chapman is approach-wise this season and being more patient and deliberate:
“Yeah, I mean, we looked at it. There’s so many numbers now. We can look at chase rate and whether it be like vert(ical break) or lefties, righties, runners – kind of, ‘Hey, how are guys getting you out and how are pitching coaches trying to pitch to you?’ So when he decided to come back this summer, we really kind of broke it down on kind of condensing the chase at times. We went all the way to the extreme in the fall where he was taking the first pitch a lot of the time, just trying to get as many pitches as he could and getting deep into counts and kind of handling it both ways, so now we’ve got it back to neutral a little bit. But again, it’s good to see him leave the yard and put some good swings on it today.”
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On if there’s been any changes or tweaks with Henry Ford:
“Monday we got together with the crew, and we can go on the field where it’s a little bit slower or whatnot, but just talking about hitting the balls in different windows or if you miss, this is where you miss. And, again, there’s some constraints you can use where you can get the result that you want when the guys are really just focused on, ‘What is the external result?’ Rather than, ‘Hey, where are my hands going?’ It kind of simplifies the process of executing the drill.
“But, really, all the credit goes to Henry. He’s smashing balls all over the place. And, again, the math is very simple. He’s hitting balls close to 110 miles per hour. If he can get them north of 20 degrees and even if it’s only 102 or 100 (mph), a lot of those are going to leave the yard. It was good to see that one – he torched that one to the left today. I think there’s plenty more of that coming.”
On how he’d evaluate Landon Mack’s start:
“It was good. I thought the stuff, obviously you never want to walk the leadoff guy to start the game, right? But, again, I think with the wind, it was his fastball that was just taking off. Even when I was throwing BP (batting practice) today, it was kind of taking off just because of that cross wind so much. Again, [he] could’ve landed the curveball and the change(up) a little bit better at times, but he’s always going to compete and give you a chance.
“And then the stuff is so good, he’s going to get some swing-and-miss where his pitch count is going to get up. But credit to Wright State, those lefties shooting balls down the… fouled down the third-base line, and then the center-fielder almost killed us in the dugout a few times. It was a good approach in executing against a really good arm. Hats off to them. But it was good to see him kind of mix and match there.”
On what makes Landon Mack’s pickoff move so effective:
“Just the quickness and athleticism. It’s quick feet and a short arm. And then also an accurate throw. He was basically a two-way guy, right? A good athlete.
“It’s something he takes pride in. I think that’s one thing we talked about this year was making sure we control the run game a little bit better. I don’t know how many pickoffs we have now, but he’s got a few of them at least. And Stone (Lawless) had the one last night. So, just working together to protect 90 feet a little bit better. He embodies that and knows that, hey, he can still go get the guy out as long as he’s still in charge of controlling the run game a little bit, too.”
On how these close wins over the past week will help heading into SEC play:
“I think it’s been great. We need to finish the weekend. That was the theme out there (in the outfield). Don’t be satisfied with what’s going on. But to be able to play some one-run games and be behind early in the game and then come back and then kind of get punched in the mouth early. In the game, I thought the vibe in the dugout was good. There was no panic. It’s nine innings. So that’s where we need these guys to get ready for in SEC because there’s going to be punches back and forth. And if you get too emotional when you get too far up in the game or too far below in the game, it’s going to get you in trouble. You have to navigate that emotionally. And it takes guys time and really you’ve got to be in it. We’d love to be winning games by ten runs or whatever it may be, but these one-run games will pay dividends down the line.”
On what he says to the team to control emotions throughout games:
“I think self-awareness is the main thing. It’s something we talk about in the fall. We talk about it in our meetings. It’s kind of a holistic deal. It’s not something you can just turn on and turn off. What is the behavior that’s going to help me have success in that moment? When I didn’t have success, why was it? So, just maybe a bird’s eye view or whatever it may be, but we talk about self-awareness being a huge skill to how to have success in anything you do in life. So, that’s something we talk about.
Sometimes you’ve got to check them. “Hey, that behavior is not going to work. Or sometimes they’ll say, ‘Hey, how was I as a player or Chuck (Jeroloman) as a player?’ What worked for you and how did you navigate that? And luckily our culture at Stone (Lawless) will do that with Trent Grindlinger or the younger guys and all that. Even some of our current players text them with guys like (Drew) Gilbert or Fisch (Andrew Fischer) or whatever.
It’s been cool how those guys have linked up. They’ve never even maybe played together, but they’ll still talk about it.”
