Tennessee baseball head coach Josh Elander shared his thoughts following the Vols’ 7-4 series-opening win over Georgia in Athens Friday.
Elander discussed big days at the plate from Manny Marin and Henry Ford, Tegan Kuhns’ start, Brandon Arvidson’s elite relief outing and more.
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See everything Elander said after the game below.
On his thoughts of the game:
“Just Friday night SEC baseball. Two big leaguers going at it. Volch (Joey Volchko) was throwing the ball really well and Tegan (Kuhns) was amazing. (Brandon) Arvidson – again, their guy out of the bullen. Really, really good stuff. It’s what you expect. Homers maybe the difference but some good defense and a lot of good baseball on both sides.”
On the Tegan Kuhns start:
“Just competitiveness. We talked about this week making sure he handled his business a little bit better than he did the week before. I thought he had all four pitches going. Overhand curveball was good. The slider had a little more depth at times. But he did throw some good Gryros too. Just competing. Did a really good job. Would have been nice to leave him out there a little bit longer but, again, Arv (Brandon Arvidson) did an amazing job of picking him up.”
On the off-speed pitches form Kuhns, specifically to Daniel Jackson and if that was the plan:
“Yeah, a little bit. He can do a lot of different things, so you go to be careful with that lineup. It’s pretty dynamic up and down. They got some power that can get you.”
On Brandon Arvidson being the difference in the game:
“100 percent. He was really, really good tonight. We have been careful how we have progressed him through. It’s been 30 (pitches) then 40 and I think we got him to almost about 60 tonight. This was the one in mind that we wanted to turn him loose. Made it easy on me. Sitting there you got (Brayden) Krenzel down there, but the way he is throwing the ball, it’s an easy one to say ‘Hey, it is Arv’s game. Let him take it.’”
On the timely home runs:
“It’s just good to see it. We talk about Stone (Lawless). Some tough at-bats but you are one swing away. That’s a really good reliever. He tags one there. Just relentless effort from Henry (ford) and Manny (Marin) to continue to get those more runs because it made that decision easier to leave Arv (Arvidson) in the game. And we got Krenz (Krenzel) down there. So, a really good job by the group tonight.”
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On how Manny Marin is on a heater:
“He’s been really good. It wasn’t the smoothest start out of the gate, but he’s played in this league, he knows what this league is like. Dominating the average play, two-strike hit, staying to the ball not trying to do too much, and then gets a mistake and drives it out of the yard, so he’s doing a lot of things at a high level right now.”
On if he knew Henry Ford would be this good:
“He’s a different animal. I just thought nationally he wasn’t getting as much love for – because you know we’ve been fortunate with CMo (Christian Moore) and Fisch (Andrew Fischer) and there’s a long list, Billy Amick – of all those guys, he’s right smack in the middle with that talent, but also make up. What he brings to our club with competitiveness, toughness, professionalism, I am very thankful he is a Tennessee Vol.”
On seeing improved success at the plate to open SEC play:
“Each series is mutually exclusive, anything can happen. With our group, we’ve talked about getting better each day. We’ve played some good competition, haven’t played our best, so it’s been nice in retrospect to look back and say, ‘We need to do X, Y and Z better,’ and then also, too the guys… it’ll force them to make adjustments a little bit quicker if they are not having the success that they want.
“So we were able to say, ‘This is what we’re doing well, this is what we need to continue doing, but this is where we need to adjust,’ and that’s what this league is about, is adjusting game to game, week to week. It’s a chess match of when the pitching coaches flip or whatever it may be, but good job by our guys sticking with the approach and taking some great swings.”
On how the home runs fed off of one another:
“It’s an offensive ballpark, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t know if it’s the construction or whatever. It seems like from when we were here in the past to now, the ball is flying a little bit more. But it definitely is contagious, right? I thought the dugout was amazing tonight, what they brought energy-wise, just being into the game. A lot of the guys, it’s their first Friday night SEC game. We’ve talked about it for months and months and months and months, so just proud of the way we competed tonight.”
