Tennessee baseball salvaged its weekend series against Ole Miss over the weekend as its offense exploded for six home runs in the 13-5 victory.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander discussed Levi Clark and Blake Grimmer’s big days, Evan Blanco’s quality start and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
More From RTI: Levi Clark, Blake Grimmer Lead Tennessee To Series Salvaging Victory OverOle Miss
On the importance of having a lot of success offensively in the win
“I thought it was huge, and I kind of joked with them that I guess they saved all of them for today. ‘They can count the same on any day’ is what I told them. It was really cool to see Henry Ford and Reese (Chapman), and just a bunch of guys having quality at-bats and using the whole field. (Blake) Grimmer beating a cutter, Levi (Clark)… what a day he had.
“We’ve always talked about being more capable. The thing in this league – Mississippi’s pitching staff, that’s as good I think we’ve seen so far just with raw stuff and what they’re able to do. Even their starter today (Taylor Rabe), I thought he was really good – I know we tagged him for 5 (runs) there – but it’s a really good sign for our group and that’s what we’re capable of. Now we need to make sure that we get there more often than not.”
On if Sunday’s performance is what he means when he says the lineup’s ‘horses need to run’
“Yes, sir. Horses ran today. Henry (Ford) 4-5, (Blake) Grimmer three tanks, Levi doing his deal. And even little things like – I know the offense was great today – but Ariel (Antigua) coming off the bench, making that play on the pop-up that Grimmer loses in the sun. I know we had the other one that we got to correct and whatnot, but I want them to play free.
“As we get further into SEC play, every team we face, it’s kind of scripted. You know kind of what they’re going to go to or which pitcher in this spot. It can deviate a little bit, but this league is about players taking advantage of the moment. It was really cool to see, on a very, very important day for our club, our guys just settle in and play baseball.”
On the significance of Evan Blanco stranding the bases loaded in the third inning
“It was huge. I thought (Evan) Blanco just had great poise as he always does. A little bit of a scary day, clearly, offensively just because of how much the ball was flying in the ballpark today. I know they said, I think, the three farthest home runs all year.
“But just to do that, some of those guys… I will not miss seeing Mr. (Judd) Utermark or Mr. (Tristan) Bissetta in the box anytime soon, I promise you that. But, when you get Blanco on the mound, you kind of know what you’re going to get. That’s a very comforting feeling for the team and our staff.”
On if there’s anything to Levi Clark hitting over .400 when in the 9-hole
“No, I’m glad you told me. I didn’t know that. We had jokes at one point, ‘He’s the best 9-hole hitter in America.’
“But we talked with Levi. It hasn’t been a smooth go, but he’s capable of changing the game at any point. (He) did that today for us and had some big hits, hit a Friday night home last week and drove the ball down the right-field line. We believe in Levi. We all do. It’s really cool to see him have a good day because it’s not easy to go through the ups and downs and people questioning, ‘What’s wrong?’ Or this or that. This is a tough league, and there’s some really good arms we face. So, that should give him a lot of confidence moving forward.”
On what Levi did well to hit the ball like he did Sunday
“I think a little bit is just like tempo and just being more under control. At times, if you look early in the year, he was crushing balls that were kind of hanging up in the wind or (he) hit a couple balls in Texas that didn’t go out. Now, all of a sudden, he starts swinging a little bit harder, and when you miss, he missed pull-side. When I was still coaching third, there were balls coming at me all over the place. (He) hasn’t done that in the last few weeks.
“Just driving the ball in the middle of the field. In high school, everybody loved the power potential. That’s why he was an All-American and all the stuff that he did. But naturally, his power is middle to right center. He drives those balls out to left-center today, and (he) just needs to slow down.
“This league is tough. Obviously physically you gotta face the stuff, but everything that goes into it mentally, how you navigate the struggles and the successes… this is really the first time he’s probably struggled like this in his life. But he’s got to find his way through, and I thought today was a good step in the right direction.”
On Stone Lawless being back in the lineup, what he brings
“I mean, just tangibly, like just the vibe that he brings when he’s in there, I think it changes— it’s a sense of calm and stability, what he does for our pitchers. I mean, objectively he’s the best receiver we have on the team on how he’s able to steal pitches at the bottom of the zone and at the top. But again, it’s an easy guy to root for off the field. He’s very consistent. A lot of things that you we preach and look for, and as coaches you hope to see in your players. He does that naturally, and that’s a credit to his parents and his family. They’re just amazing people. And so getting him back there was good. Had all the catchers in there in different spots today. That was nice to see.
“But credit to him because he worked extremely hard to get back, with our medical staff— they did a great job. He was patient. We made sure we checked, we got him live at-bats, got him to catch live, able to get him in there yesterday. And he trusted us to get him in a good spot.
“And credit to the fans, they were amazing. That standing ovation. No coincidence. That’s why he hits a ball to right field with a barrel. That’s just everybody working together to win. So that was great to see.”
On Henry Ford’s performances, adversity this season due to illness
“He’s been showing a lot of toughness grinding through that. And a lot of guys would have missed probably a little bit more time, but he was fighting to be out there. Another guy that can change the game in one swing at any point.
“But they are still young. They’re not professionals yet. And they’re going to go through those periods of doubt. And that’s our job as coaches, how do you get them back on track as soon as you can? So that was the idea. We talked about it yesterday, like what are we going to do different? We just kind of went more of a slower show and go, pro-ball style. Sometimes you just need to reset, focus on the meat and potatoes. We made sure that we hit cutter machine early, went into BP, and credit to those guys because it wasn’t really a huge, huge change. They’re just out there playing baseball together, trying to win.”
On if consistency gets overblown with the parity in the SEC this season
“I think it’s clear if you look at the league, the back and forth and the parity, it’s definitely some challenges, but we don’t go consistency solely based on results. We’re trying to go consistency in behaviors and our routines and how do you respond when things are going well and things are not. We’re looking at— the players joke all the time— over the course of 56 games, what works? Behavior-wise, habits-wise? So that’s where our consistency focus is.
We have no control over the record at the end of the day, wins or loss. We just seem to make sure free passes is what we’ve talked about, trying to get six or more runs as a team. So we’re trying to give them some objective things that if we chain those things together consistently, it’s going to put us in a position to win. But we also, got to respect this league. It’s dangerous and every team is capable of winning any single game that comes about.”
On how he feels about Tennessee’s weekend as a whole
“I like the way the offense swung the bat (on Sunday), for sure. I think what (Evan) Blanco has given us on Sunday with strikes and stability is huge. We’ll look at the rotation for next week, because it’ll be Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So that’ll be our first challenge, how we navigate that. So I’ll get with Reyn (Tennessee pitching coach Josh Reynolds) and the rest of the crew, but just need to keep getting better. That’s really the theme this time of the year.
“And (the) little things — I talked to the team (about), the ball goes in the air, has to be caught. This is the SEC. They’re pop ups. They need to be caught. Ariel (Antigua) did a good job later in the game getting that done. But just those little controllable things, if you want to be consistent and have success, you need to dominate the average play. So that’s where our focus needs to be on that, and then just keep stringing together quality at-bats.”
On why he said after Saturday’s loss in Game 2 that Sunday’s Game 3 was the most important Sunday game for Tennessee to this point in the season
“Well, for two reasons. One, because it was our next game, right? I know that’s a little bit coachy, but then, at the same time, too, as you get into the meat and potatoes of the league, we’ve just started the second half. So again, just Sunday at home, it’s always a very, very important day, but I just think that Friday, we just got beat. Saturday was a very painful end to the game. And so it’s all about resiliency and how do you respond when you get punched? We’ve been punched plenty now, but you know, we got to put ourselves in a position where, hey, we’re attacking each game as we go, but we want to be in the hunt, and we are right now.”
On how Tennessee redshirt sophomore Blake Grimmer has grown in his first season as a full-time starter
“I think it’s just the ability to use the whole field and hit everything. I mean, he’s a guy that they have circled, and Mississippi’s pitching staff, I can’t give them enough credit just with the stuff by itself, and the splitters, cutters, changeups. There’s so many different shapes. They can kind of tie you in a knot based on how you go through it, but a lot of times it’s just simplify and having good direction in the middle of the field.
“We were joking with Grimm. He had his first hit in a while on Tuesday, he was asking me to ask for the ball and whatnot. So just kind of that, like comedic relief. I’m like, ‘dude, you’re still having a really, really good year,’ but just maturity. That’s what you get with the older players, and that’s what you hope for, and why some teams have kind of gone a different direction in recruiting. We’ve always talked about being built from within, and Grimmer is a guy that could have left at any point and has waited his turn. It’s cool to see him having some success, because he’s an easy one to root for.”
On when he realized the team wasn’t as tense in the series finale
“I think you kind of get a pulse when you walk in. I got here really early this morning, and usually when the music’s blaring pretty loud, you can hear those guys, you know, just doing what (they) need — we talk about being consistent, like guys in the weight room, getting themselves moving. That’s a big theme on Sundays, is you got to get out of bed, you got to eat, you got to make sure you do some mobility. And we kind of met them in the middle, where we took the volume of the reps down. But those guys, again, we just want to — each day is mutually exclusive. If you let carry over from the win or the loss the day before bleed into the next day, the team and the players are doing a disservice. So good to see them win two Sundays now in a row, and that needs to be something we continue to do.”
