Tennessee baseball took care of business by run-ruling West Georgia 13-0 in seven innings on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols scored nine runs in the first two innings and used nine pitchers to shutout the Wolves.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander discussed why he decided to start Cam Appenzeller, Nate Eisfelder’s development and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Run-Rules West Georgia In Midweek Bout
On starting Cam Appenzeller tonight
“I thought it was just good to get him back in his routine starting. He’s a rare guy where he’s presently, but also a huge piece of our future as well. So, when it comes to development, I think it’s good to get him back out there. The last two (outings) haven’t been as clean, I think, as anybody would like. Wanted him to be able to go through that full routine. I thought the breaking ball had a little bit more depth tonight. Just let him go through that and getting a little feel-good outing, I thought, was important before we got up to Lexington.”
On if he knows the role Cam Appenzeller will pitch in this weekend at Kentucky
“No, we’ll talk tomorrow (Wednesday). I think all our pitchers did a phenomenal job tonight. Nobody threw more than 20 pitches and guys attacking the strike zone. No free 90s. But usually, Wednesday is the day we’ll start to map out when we look at Kentucky a little bit deeper. But we’ll make that decision probably by Thursday at the latest.”
On if he does anticipate changing the starting rotation in some capacity for this weekend
“Yeah, I do think we will. In what capacity? I haven’t decided yet, but as soon as we know, we’ll let you guys.”
On if starting Cam Appenzeller had to do more to do with getting him starting experience or more about getting him a good outing
“I think probably the latter. Just wanted to get him back out there and let him go through the normal day. Get him in the good routine. Let him know, ‘Hey, he’s got one inning no matter what.’ But also too, it’s one of those deals, you can check two boxes at one time. He’s so easy going. He wants the ball. He’s a quiet kid, but he’s ultra-competitive. But he’s the one who came up to me with the idea. Was like he wanted to start today. I want to throw. So again, that’s a good thing when you hear that. Guy wants the baseball. He could be at the point and say, I’m good. I’ll just kind of wait it out, but wanted to make some adjustments.”
On how important it has been watching Brayden Krenzel stack good appearances on one another
“It’s been really, really good. I think that’s now three or four in-a-row that have been pretty clean for the most part. There really hasn’t been any big, scattered misses or anything. Even when he comes in on Thursday last week – loses a guy to a walk and then fires a heater at the bottom of the zone and gets a ground ball and gets out. So, he’s had a ton of confidence. So, I just wanted to make sure he was able to stack and get his feet back underneath him. He’s getting close, if not being ready. When we get up there this weekend, we need to be ready to mix and match in whatever capacity possible. And I got a ton of confidence he gets outs for us at any point.”
On Nate Eisfelder’s freshman year and his character
“The freshman year— he is originally from California and then the recruiting process, he’s lived down in East Tennessee. Ends up going down to IMG, so he’s kind of been all over. Played some good competition. His freshman fall was, it was not great. I think he might have told you guys that, but just struggled a little bit. I think was maybe trying to do too much. But in the recruiting process, easily identified this guy is going to be able to hit. Just has a feel and a natural box presence that is beyond his years. He’s doing a good job in the outfield moving around. He’s a competitive kid. He wants to win. He was on a high school team that won and a summer team that won a lot. He checks a lot of boxes that we’re looking for and he continues to take advantage of those opportunities. Crushed that ball tonight. It was good to see. So, he continues to get better. Usually that freshman year, just got to keep attacking each day. And he’s done a good job, whether it be extra work with (Director of Sports Performance) Keegan (Knoll) or extra swings in the cage. He’s just wired and he wants to continue to get better. So, it’s good to see him earn those opportunities and then take advantage out there.”
On Nate Eisfelder attacking the first pitch of his at-bat when he hit a home run
“Yeah, just the box presence. When you get in there – it’s different from my perspective where I’m standing now, obviously I was at third base for a long time – you just see stuff we look for in recruiting, ‘What’s the pace between pitches? What’s the body language look like?’ Even when you throw him out versus Jack Bauer throwing 100 (mph) in Mississippi State, it never looks like there’s any fear, or even just how they go about their breathing, things like that. It’s good presence. That’s what you want.
“Guys believing they can have success and then being able to slow down and execute. He’s been able to do that for us, and he just needs to keep taking advantage of those opportunities.”
On how much of a challenge the Kentucky series will be for the battery
“Every team is unique in kind of what challenges they bring. The one thing we look at is, now, we have big sample sizes of how much they run out of conference versus in conference. I’m sure they have over 100 stolen bases. They always do this time of the year. We’ll look at that, but it’s been a point of emphasis for us, trying to slow down the running game. I know we looked back on the fall at a video of a game last year versus these guys (Kentucky) that wasn’t good enough on how we went about that day.
“This time of year, it’s about attacking each day, our crew getting us in the right spot, and then making sure – this is something that we’ve talked about the entire year – it’s another SEC opponent on the road. It’s going to be a challenge regardless of what color the jersey is or where we’re going. We need to make sure we’re hooked up.”
On getting Chris Newstrom at-bats
“It was great. He’s been working hard behind the scenes. And you know, defense is something that’s really easy for him. His ability to go from second to center and third, he could play short, he’s played first, caught in high school a little bit. He can do that. Really, a Swiss army knife back there, and he just misses a homer foul. I love that he drives in an RBI. Middle of the field, infield back, no problem, just take your RBI. It was good to see him take some good swings, because I know it’s been a minute since he’s been in there, but he’s working hard behind the scenes.”
On what he’s looking for out of the pitchers in a midweek game
“It’s a combination of things. Appy (Cam Appenzeller) tonight was – wanted him to check the box of going through the starter routine, wanted to make sure that he got a clean outing going into the weekend. And then it goes through, there’s a lot of different things we’re looking for, whether it be a matchup, ‘Can this lefty get this lefty out?’ Or even in some cases, ‘Can this lefty get a lefty and a righty out?’ Or is this a guy where, like (Brayden) Krenzel, the last two times, I wanted him to be able to get out of the inning and then sit down and then go back out and face another hitter.
“Reyn (pitching coach Josh Reynolds) and I talk about, it’s kind of week to week. There are some matchup stuff that we’ll look at, but we’ve always talked about opportunity here. I remember learning from V (Tony Vitello), you talk about development and stuff, and I know some people probably don’t like it if we go out and get one guy for one hitter or one out, but we want to get our guys out there and let them compete. They work hard behind the scenes. There’s a lot of different ways to do that. But the pitchers, up and down tonight, they did a great job.”
On how valuable it was to have Saturday and Sunday off because it played a doubleheader against Alabama on Friday
“It’s incredibly valuable. It was just a weird day, to be honest. On Saturday, you wake up and you’re like, what time is BP? But I thought those guys did a great job. I had them — Saturday was completely off. I told them, ‘please don’t come to the facility. Just take the day, enjoy the win, reset.’ A lot of people had their family in town still, which was really cool to be able to take that little reset. And then Sunday, we let them sleep in a little bit, and we (practiced) in the evening, so just kind of hit a little reset, got them moving around. Because you got to be careful. You take too many off days, you get out of sync, or get a little sluggish. And then Monday was our normal routine.
“But that’s been a big theme here for a long time, is, what are your habits? How do you handle your business? What are your choices? Again, just controlling your thoughts and how you go about it, but this time of year, nutrition, recovery, all the little things outside of talent or competing between the lines can really start to show up as the weather turns, and our guys have done a good job of handling that and need to down the stretch.”
On how Tennessee carries its momentum into this weekend’s series against Kentucky
“Yeah, I think, like momentum — you can look at it big picture — but it can swing throughout the course of the game. In SEC, its punches back-and-forth at all times. I think if you look at last weekend holistically, or from a bird’s-eye-view, it’s how different our games were from the first game to the next day, and what other reasons we can have success or not.
“So for us, it’s attack tomorrow, attack Thursday. But at the same time, when we get up there, we need to compete number one, because you’re on the road in the SEC, but also, too, we’re making sure we’re taking care of 90-feet and attacking the strike zone, and then we’ll roll from there.”
On how to make sure his player’s are maintaining the same level mentally throughout ups and downs
“I think it’s, what we’ve been through this year, there’s been plenty of ups and downs. You know, where we’ve been swept on the road, we swept the team at home, we’ve lost close games late, we’ve won close games late. So I think now they understand in this league, you just have to be ready for the next task, whether that be within the game or the next game, and then also understanding how to handle success and failure, because if you win on Friday night, you don’t get to take a step back, or if you lose on Friday night, also, you don’t need to be hitting the panic button throughout the course of the rest of the weekend. So I think as we get into, you know, the last three SEC series, these guys have some stripes. They’ve earned it now and just need to go out and keep competing.”
On if there’s anything specific to why Tennessee’s offense has been playing well of late:
“I think it’s just guys just getting more ABs under their belt, kind of settling into what are their roles and how they’re moving around. I think with the SEC, how the arms are good every year, as they continue to face future major leaguers left and right, they’re just ready. They’ve seen it, and they have more at-bats.
“I think guys have been maybe a little bit more selective at times, but it hasn’t been a deal like, hey, we’ve turned it upside down. It’s just a matter of staying the course and understanding the process of, there’s some arms in this league you’re going to face where you got to scratch and claw just to get him out of the game, much less score or get in the bullpen. But our guys have taken some big swings.
“And, you know, I think tonight is a good deal where with two outs, first two guys are out. All of a sudden, (Blake) Grimmer just does just enough to stay to a baseball and then Trent (Grindlinger) smashed the ball and then Reese (Chapman) blows it open. I think just working together to win needs to be the theme down the stretch.”
