Tennessee baseball bounced back from a disappointing series finale loss at Georgia by knocking off Eastern Kentucky 10-3 on Tuesday evening.
Following the game, head coach Josh Elander discussed Manny Marin’s hot stretch, his assessment of Brayden Krenzel and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
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On what he liked about the response on Tuesday following the tough ending in Athens
“It was good. We turned the page when we got back in town. Again, tough one right there. It’s a good learning experience for our guys. We’re proud of how they competed down there, and it was incredible play. Unfortunately, I had it from our seats and watching that catch get made. But our guys’ vibes were great today. I’m glad we were able to move up, game time, all our pregame work in. Turn the page to the next week.”
On what Manny Marin is doing so well at the plate
“He’s doing a lot of things well. Really, it’s been just an attitude and not that there was any issues. I just think the way he’s approaching these days is much more professional. He’s always been incredibly talented. He was Team USA shortstop. Most of those guys usually don’t make it to school, so it’s cool to see him playing and just playing to win, as we saw down in Athens. I think when guys get from, “hey, what can I do here?” to, “hey, how do I help the team win?” A lot of times they’re going to play better themselves and he’s firmly in the middle of that right now.”
On what he’s seen from Levi Clark the past two games
“He’s getting closer, there’s no doubt. He hit that ball to left field tonight with two strikes, and we could talk about the contact quality or whatever, but executing right there. Kind of the same swing down there in Georgia. He’s doing well when he’s catching. At some point, he’s going to be right in the middle of us driving runs in and helping us win games and we all hope it’s sooner rather than later. But I definitely think it’s getting closer. We talk about the hits or whatnot. I think everybody wants to see those. But for him to be able to take that walk tonight – he wants to hit, so everybody knows the average or whatever it may be. But the discipline there to say, “Okay, no, this is a ball, I’m going to take it. I’m just going to take my walk.” I thought that was a really good sign going into this weekend.”
On if there’s a correlation for Levi Clark hitting better while catching
“It could be. I’ll be honest, it’s a conversation we’ve had for sure. From playing the position myself — that’s kind of my frame of reference. You’re in every pitch and working through it. And I just thought today, again, just holding guys accountable. There’s some things that happen on defense that we don’t want to see anymore. It’s something we have looked at.”
On what impressed him about Trent Grindlinger after getting moved into the starting lineup an hour before first pitch
“Yeah. A little change, and hopefully Henry’s feeling better, but I tell those guys all the time, ‘be patient, stay ready.’ And he’s been really working his tail up behind the scenes, but pretty cool to see him use the whole field. I mean, down the left field line, up the middle for the triple, and then staying on a good, that was our closure that came in late that was getting some work. So the triples, I don’t think we’ll see too too many of those. It was good to see, but he’s taking advantage of his opportunities and that’s what you love to see when the young guys can do that.”
On if he thinks his team took a step forward at Georgia even after losing the series
“We definitely got better. There’s 100% we got better. That was the theme and if that ball goes three feet further, we got a chance to get three outs, and we all come home feeling like, ‘Hey, we’re in a good spot.’ And again, we’re not in complete control of results or how it’s going to end, but Grimmer staying on that ball, that’s a premier lefty you got to hit that home run off of. And then Stone coming off the bench when sitting, we’re all getting soaked all day in the rain and puts, I mean, that’s one of their best relievers. That’s their first guy out of the ‘pen on Friday night. So that’s where our theme is. We’ve talked about on Sundays, this or that, we just need to continue to get better. And my challenge for the guys is if we do that, and then like Manny has done at one of the spots, there’s still a couple of spots that are open for grabs, whether it be in the bullpen or on the offensive side. So we just need to, need to do that, and some of those guys need to take advantage of that for sure.”
On where they are at second base
“That’s the No. 1 question that we talked about as a staff, right? We’ve had the three guys that have worked through there. Jay’s capable of doing it as well. And we’ve honestly just tried to think outside the box too of what are the different ways we can get guys in there. And we’ve had some internal conversations, but that’ in our conversations with our team, as we’re having with them, saying ‘who, who wants to play second base?’ And I’m excited to see who ends up taking that opportunity”
On what Brayden Krenzel is battling in his last two outings
“See, I think some people could go that way. I don’t think – you know it wasn’t as clean, we could talk about the deal with Georgia and all that, adverse conditions – but a guy put a good swing on it right there, tip of the cap. Tonight, he’s coming in there just firing. We just want guys to go out there and compete over the white. And also too, you don’t have to basically blow guys away. I think sometimes guys get – it’s both sides of the coin – they want to blow guys away and strike everybody out, or they’re saying, ‘Hey, I just need to get this thing over the white.’ There’s usually somewhere in the middle where the success long-term is going to come from.
“Krenzel’s got a lot of outs for us, and he will continue to get a lot of big outs for us. But the theme today was just get him back out there, let him hit the reset button, and,we’ll see plenty more of Krenzel down the stretch.”
On what he knows about Missouri
“Having a good year. [They] played Auburn last weekend and didn’t go well up there, but they’ve got three good arms on the mound, guys in the mid-90s (mph), one lefty, sinker/splitter guys, playing better defense and playing better offense than they have in previous years.
“And it’s an SEC opponent coming to town. It really doesn’t matter what the logo is. Anybody can win on any day. I’m just excited to see this place full and have some really good weather, and our guys need to build on what we had last week and finish and execute a little bit better, and we’ll go from there.”
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