Tennessee baseball outlasted Oklahoma to earn a 9-7 series-opening victory on Thursday night. The Vols overcame an early three-run deficit and picked up the victory despite allowing 17 hits.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander discussed the offense’s timely hitting, Bo Rhudy closing the door and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
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On the gritty effort to pull out the victory
“I think gritty is a great word. I loved the way they competed. Got punched in the mouth right out of the gate and a good job by our offense by staying in it and stacking a couple good innings back-to-back. Just played good baseball. Kept the ball in front and Garrett (Wright) throwing a guy out at third base. They had a couple outs on the bases that may have ended up (as) one of the differences in the game. But great job, Appy (Cam Appenzeller), I thought he threw the ball really really well. Tegan didn’t have his best stuff tonight but competed. He was a warrior out there for him to get us over 100 pitches. Lot of really good things and anytime you can win a first game of the series, we’ll take it.”
On the importance of Tegan Kuhns getting through five innings
“It was massive. We needed it. Again, it wasn’t a ton of take off on the heater today, but you have to find a way to get it done this time of year and I thought he did a really good job of competing. It was kind of the opposite of our approach with their guy. We tried to get him out of the game as soon as we could. I thought our guys did a really good job of grinding them down. But Tegan had one big strikeout there in the middle innings to get when we had some ducks on the pond. Just an easy guy to bet on. Great competitiveness and I know he’ll be ready to go next week, again.”
On Bo Rhudy slamming the door
“Just, the heater looked better. I thought he had more conviction when he was throwing it. I told him after his last outing, make sure when you come in you’re cutting it loose from the jump. I thought he did a good job of that. Kind of a quirky deal with the timeout deal or whatnot (pitch clock violation on a 3-2 pitch), but a good job of responding and getting the next guy out and then competing because their hitters did a good job with two strikes, just kind of flaring balls oppo all night and withstanding innings. But really good to see Rhudy just settle in there and put an end to that game.”
On the offense having a number of timely, clutch hits
“They outhit us by a ton but I think our execution was good. If I was greedy, I would have liked a few more there (in the ninth), we get the bases loaded. Blaine (Brown) does a good job right there getting the bases loaded and that’s a really good arm and that’s a win for our offense to be able to get that closer in the game on a Thursday night because they will have to use him again. We just wanted, at this time of year, it’s about having one more run than the other team but I thought Manny’s at-bat was massive to get on top of that fastball and drive it up the middle and make that adjustment mid AB. Need more of that this weekend.”
On what he’s hoping to see from his time on Friday
“They’re going to have plenty of time to reset. We have the same night game tomorrow so we’ll stick with the same schedule and just want them to be out the gates. I know (Evan) Blanco was saying how much he likes this place and how he’s excited to play here so we’ll hand him the ball and our offense needs to do the same thing. Grind a way on the starter, get into the bullpen and attack the next thing.”
