Tennessee baseball took care of business on Tuesday night, jumping out to a sizable early lead and cruising to a 14-4 run-rule victory over Lipscomb.
Following the game, Elander discussed Garrett Wright’s big performance, previewed Tennessee’s weekend series against Alabama and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Coasts To Run-Rule Victory Over Lipscomb
On what was the weirder play between Garrett Wright’s bounce on the double or bounce off the wall for a near grand slam
“It was very weird play. No doubt. There was a little bit of a base running mistake in there. We’ll have to get corrected. But what a great night from G-Wright (Garrett Wright), being able to play both two spots in the middle of the field and be able to get back there. And we’re able to check a lot of boxes, but there was definitely some strange ones. An incredible play by (Ariel) Antigua where they’re late to keep the ball in the infield, and not only do that, but have the awareness to throw the ball at third base and Henry (Ford) to be there and ultimately finish the play. And we probably could have done the rundown a little bit better. We’ll talk about that tomorrow, but good job by our guys competing.”
On if he is surprised by how productive Stone Lawless has been in his first few games back from injury
“No, he’s an easy guy to root for. All the success that he gets is earned in a lot of different ways. Just taking short swings. Just taking a walk. You’ve been on the bench – him for a different reason – but hadn’t had a ton of ABs (at-bats). Those guys may want to chase some hits at the beginning. But to mix in a walk and hit a homer and catch the ball the way he has the last few days, it’s a really good sign for us moving forward.”
On how good it was for Blaine Brown to tally a multi-hit day and to drive the ball to the opposite field
“Massive, massive. We need that. We looked at some things with him yesterday on video. Credit to our staff for getting him in a good spot and really crushed the balls to left-center. That second arm that he faced – that drives that ball to left center. It was a 92-mile an hour heater running away. Just a good, short swing. Not trying to do too much. Just been crashing at the ball a little bit. He’s wildly talented and going through the league (SEC) for the first time, he just needs to stay in the right mindset. I think just kind of staying in that phone booth a little bit more was a point of emphasis. Credit to him, just for being able to take what we worked on and for him to be able to put into action today.”
On what he thought of Brayden Krenzel’s relief outing
“I thought it was great again, 92-97 (mph). I thought he threw some good sliders. You can just kind of tell by the way the ball is coming out of his hand what you’re going to get. So, that was good to see with just some conviction. The work he’s been doing with Reyn (Pitching Coach Josh Reynolds) on the side, just to get more consistency. Even with his catch-player, how he’s going through things. What I did want to do was have him get through an inning and then sit down and get back up. So, we did score some runs. Again, attacking the strike zone. The guy hits a laser up the middle, kind of a tip of the cap swing right there. We need Krenz (Brayden Krenzel) down the stretch. So, we need him to be able to continue to stack, whether it be multiple innings or whatnot. His stuff is as good as anybody in the league when he’s on. We just need to get him there.”
On what they need to see from Krenzel to go to him in a more high-leverage SEC spot
“Well, I think there’s a lot of guys that we’re trying to mix and match. Again, like what (Will) Haas was able to do to come out or Chandler Day, we just want them to get out there and compete. And even Abraham, has a really good first inning and gets tagged a little bit in the second but he’s throwing the ball over the plate. We can live with that if we can play defense. And so I think again, Krenz, no walks tonight, attacking the strike zone. He’s a guy that we really believe in. Was a highly touted recruit. So just need to keep stacking. Hey, let’s make sure that next outing he’s in a good mindset and throws the ball like he did tonight and we’ll continue to build that way.”
On Ethan Baiotto getting seven ground ball outs
“Yeah, that’s hard to do. But no walks too, which is really, really good. But when he throws strikes at the bottom of the zone, it’s very hard to get the ball in the air. And lefties have got him a little bit better, usually the way that ball’s sinking in. They’re kind of hunt(ing) the middle-inside bottom and try to shoot the ball to left center. But again, some great defense by our guys. Grimmer had a million put outs tonight, it seemed like. But doing a good job. And Kiv’s got those guys in the right spots. And when we get ground balls and pop ups, they need to be outs, period. And I think everybody was working together right there.”
On Henry Ford making nice defensive plays
“Yeah, he was great. I mean, those guys grind away whether it be early work in different positions and moving around. And he didn’t really play third base at Virginia at all until he got here. So he’s come a really long way, and that’s a credit to a lot of guys on our staff. But no hits, but is able to get a RBI tonight. We always tell the guys, RBIs only go up, so don’t be worried about chasing hits. And had an amazing day on Sunday, of course. But he’s a guy, when he does that, he’s going to change the game plenty offensively for us. But the consistency he’s given us over there is really a credit to him and how he’s continued to work and has made himself a more than capable third baseman in this league.”
On what he knows about Alabama
“It’s just always a good club. We told the team, the nine or 10 years we played these guys, it’s always a battle, regardless of who’s on the roster, home or road. It’s just a good, competitive SEC weekend. I think Rob Vaughn is a phenomenal coach. He always treated me very, very well on the road. When he’s a head coach and I’m an assistant, there was no need for him to come out of the way. So that’s something that, again, I’ve always been grateful for. And I know he’s worked with Coach Kivett in the past, but good program, good competition. But we’re on our home turf this weekend, and I’m excited for the challenges, and hopefully have our crowd in it with us just like they have been and need to protect our home turf.”
On if he anticipates making any changes to the starting rotation since the Alabama series will begin a day earlier on Thursday
“No, we talked about it a little bit, but really, the main thing we’re looking at right now is how the weather going to play out? So that’ll be, before we make any decisions, right there, it’ll probably be more of a day-to-day deal this week. But I know (Evan) Blanco is in a good spot, threw about 110 (pitches) last weekend — he feels good. Tegan (Kuhns) feels great and (Landon) Mack should be more than fresh, ready to rock and roll.”
On how concerned he is that Tennessee starters Landon Mack, Evan Blanco and Tegan Kuhns will be pitching a day earlier this week after they each threw a bunch of pitches last weekend against Ole Miss
“Really, if you think of like in pro ball, they’re on that five-day stretch, right? So again, in college, you have the luxury to get a couple more days. But I think with having (strength coach) Keegan (Knoll) that’s been in the major leagues and goes through that process, and he’s done it for the five or six years he’s been in professional baseball or the major leagues, it’s easy for them to go to him and say, ‘hey, what adjustments did this starter make? Or this guy for the Brewers? Or this guy for the Cubs?’
“So I know Blanco was actually doing a little bit more today, kind of amping it up, getting ready for the week, hit that reset button a little bit quicker. But, you know, we got great people in the building that’ll get them right. That one day is really not too big of a deal.”
On Stone Lawless being happy that freshman Ethan Moore was able to travel to Mississippi State, instead of being upset he wasn’t able to travel because of his injury, and if that speaks to how great of a teammate Lawless is
“100%. We all wanted him there, and then credit to E-Mo. We played well down there, his karaoke on the bus after wins needs to improve. But it was a good effort, and I’m glad he was there and brought some good energy.
“If you’re a good teammate and you handle your business the right way, you can change the vibe, whether you’re in the mix of the battle, or not. So that’s such a valuable thing. Being a good teammate is something we’ve talked about here for a very, very long time, in a lot of different ways, and there’s a lot of different ways to do that.
“Stone is a great example of how E-Mo did it when he got his opportunity to travel. A lot of guys have been good teammates as of late, and need to continue to be down the stretch.”
