Blaine Brown hit a grand slam over the centerfield wall at Lindsey Nelson Stadium to give Tennessee a 5-0 lead against LSU in the third inning of Sunday afternoon’s series rubber match. But Tennessee’s offense mustered just two hits the rest of the game, falling to LSU 16-6 in 12 innings.
The blown lead and lack of offensive production is an all too common theme for Tennessee right now. Josh Elander continues searching for answers on how to fix a Tennessee offense that has been one of the SEC’s worst this season. There’s one thing he knows for sure.
“When you look at the top of the lineup, we need our horses to run,” Elander said Sunday. “That’s what we need. And there’s not a lot of production at the top. It was nice to see Blaine have a good day and Trent do some things that— with some good quality at-bats and putting us in a position to win. But again, we’re going to go how those guys go.”
Tennessee tinkered with its lineup a bit for Sunday’s series finale, moving Blaine Brown out of the two-hole and into the five-hole. But the Vols’ lineup has mostly included Garrett Wright hitting leadoff, Blaine Brown hitting third and Henry Ford hitting in the three-hole.
That trio combined to hit six-for-37 (.162) with two extra-base hits and four walks. Wright is producing at a solid level compared to expectations, but Tennessee needs far more from Brown and Ford.
Brown is slashing .216/.310/.490 while striking out in 31% of his plate appearances in SEC play. Ford hasn’t been any better slashing .192/.271/.385 in SEC play with a 31% strikeout rate.
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Levi Clark is another player who projected to be one of Tennessee’s best hitters this season. He struggled mightily in non conference play before stabilizing things in SEC play. Clark is slashing .250/.381/.438 in SEC play which is solid but still not what Tennessee envisioned from the slugger entering the season.
“I think the consistency has not been good enough,” Elander said of the offense. “We need to make sure that we’re putting them in spots to have better success.”
Elander has consistently said this season that he believes Tennessee’s offense is better than it is showing. But the Vols have consistently been ranked in the bottom of the SEC in nearly every hitting statistic.
Entering the second week of April, Tennessee ranks 14th in the SEC in batting average, is tied for eighth in home runs and ranks 14th in runs scored. There are no shortage of issues with Tennessee’s offense but the top problem remains the lack of production from the top bats in the Vols’ lineup.
Reese Chapman has had a good senior season, Blake Grimmer has performed the way Tennessee hoped entering his first season as a full-time starter, Stone Lawless brought pop to the lineup before his injury and freshman Trent Grindlinger is emerging as a solid hitter.
But none are doing enough for Tennessee to overcome its lack of production from its top bats and the lack of production from the second base spot.
