Tennessee baseball head coach Josh Elander met with the media following the Vols’ 6-5 series-clinching loss to Vanderbilt in 16 innings Saturday in Nashville.
Elander discussed a plethora of topics to come from Tennessee’s longest game in program history, including Vandy’s walk-off squeeze play, pitching performances from Cam Appenzeller, Landon Mack and Bo Rhudy, why Stone Lawless bunted in the 15th with runners on the corners and one out and more.
RECAP: Tennessee Baseball Suffers Walk-Off Loss to Vanderbilt in 16 Innings to Lose Series
See everything Elander said below.
On the emotions and message to the team after that loss:
“We’ll talk on the bus here in a second. That’s a tough one. Our guys competed well. Getting walked off two nights in a row is not a good feeling. We need to make the adjustments and how we go about our business and execution to make sure when we’re in those spots, our guys just relax and get it done because spots all over the place to get it done and it’s right there. Our guys are competing and just not getting it done when we need to.”
What the difference was from the five-run inning to all other innings for the offense:
“I thought the guy (Wyatt Nadeau) was just running out of gas a little bit. Starter had good stuff out of the gate. Fastball was really taking off and then breaking ball. Had some really good top-to-bottom depth today. Just a high-handed guy. And Henry (Ford) puts a good swing on it but that is what we talked about out offense being capable of doing – stringing together three, four, five hits and guy leaving the yard. When you chase pitches up and down, guys in-between a little bit again today, it’s not a formula for success.”
On the Stone Lawless bunt out to the pitcher with runners on the corners and one out in the 15th inning…
“So, let him swing the bat the first pitch. First and third, we got one out and then a safety is indefensible right there if you get the ball down and away from the pitcher. You get it down but not away from the pitcher. So, Blaine (Brown) does a good job of not running into a free out there at home plate.
“It’s just one we got to execute. It’s not even if it’s a ball or a strike. It’s a pitch you can get down on or not. So, we’ll go back and look at the pitch, but with them not crashing the first baseman, we just got to execute there and it’s a completely different ballgame.”
On what he thought of Cam Appenzeller’s performance:
“He’s been phenomenal. He’s been a guy that continues to get better. The moment doesn’t seem to be too big for him. Throwing strikes and we’d like to let him run a little bit more, but he’s been great. His communication. It was just a little gas there at the end, so it was time to go to (Bo) Rhudy.”
On if he liked his team’s competitiveness in a game of that length:
“I thought they stayed in it, which is what you want. That’s a lot of emotional swings back and forth. You got a chance to drive a guy in, you don’t. They got the same thing going on. I didn’t think our guys were trying to take too big of swings or anything like that, working together, trying to win. Two freshmen with Appy and their guy (Tyler) Baird, that’s two premier freshman arms going at it for a while.
“It’s one of those games, just everybody unloading the clip and our guys just need to hit the reset button as fast as they can. A different swing here or there, it’s a completely different weekend. But that’s not where we’re at right now. So we need to show up tomorrow with a really, really quick turnaround and be ready to compete some more.”
More From RTI: Josh Elander Reacts to 16-Inning Series-Clinching Loss to Vanderbilt
On Landon Mack’s outing:
“No walks is obviously a really, really good sign, but just didn’t play defense behind him. You got a standard ground ball that we throw away and a ball just uncharacteristically kind of kicks off from behind our outfielder (Reese Chapman). Our guys are playing hard, but those are things when you play on the road in the SEC, make baserunning mistakes, or you do things like that, it’s not going to put you in a position to win because somebody can leave the yard right after like they did twice in that inning.”
On his trust in Bo Rhudy and the value of his emotion:
“Continues to grow each day. We’ve asked a lot of him this week. I thought he’s met every challenge with how he needed to. The ball’s coming out crisp, the breaking ball continues to get better. It’s a good sign for moving forward because he’s a workhorse and he’s starting to gain some confidence out there.”
On what you tell Blaine Brown given his recent struggles:
“It’s baseball, it’s gonna happen. There’s a lot of things we can look at, but usually there’s beauty in simplicity when you’re struggling because guys will try to look at mechanics, this or that. Usually we’ll go on an external focus and just let those guys just remember who they are. They’re always one swing away from getting hot. And G-Wright (Garrett Wright) didn’t have the best day yesterday, has a great day today staying to the ball.
“That needs to be the theme with our offense is one swing away from getting back to what we’re capable of doing.”
On if Blake Grimmer was healthy enough to play in the field:
“We talked late last night. He was really hurting today. [It] didn’t feel like he was in a good position to put our team [in a position] to be able to win if he was playing defense. That was not one of the options we talked about today. Communication and trust there is what we talked about. If they’re not ready to go, then we’re not going to do that.”
