CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Tennessee baseball’s 2026 season came to a close on Saturday afternoon as VCU defeated the Vols 5-4. After a strong final month of the season, Tennessee laid an egg with a quick 0-2 exit from the NCAA Tournament.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander discussed the offseason, what went wrong for the Vols’ offense and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
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Opening Statement
“Congrats to VCU. They beat us today. Just want to tell these guys – especially right here (Stone Lawless and Reese Chapman) – it’s been a crazy year for us, and (I) love how they stayed in it. Got some good memories with these two right here to say the least. But I think the game has told us we need to make some adjustments. We’ll make those in the offseason. Excited to continue to get better. But, congrats to VCU and thank you to everybody in North Carolina for a premiere set up for a regional.”
On the adjustments that need to be made in the offseason
“That’s a great question. Just walking right off the field, I think the main thing is to get back with the staff, and we’ve been very fortunate to win a lot of regionals in a row. That’s now come to an end, so I think we need to look at everything holistically and just try to get better. That needs to be a theme. So, we’ll have those conversations, but nothing specific with just the emotions of coming right off the field.”
On what bothered Tegan Kuhns, how he’s feeling and why the velo dipped
“Tegan, he’s a warrior, he’s a winner. He’s going to pitch in the big leagues for a long time. Whoever’s lucky enough to get him with their first pick is going to be very lucky. It’s a guy who’s been sick the last two or three days. He’s running back and forth. You guys can guess where in between innings. (He was) trying to put himself in a good spot. Hydrating. Gave us everything he had, and (I’m) just proud of how he competed today because he gave us everything. But physically, arm health is in a great spot. He’s going to pitch for a long time.”
On what stands out about the offensive issues the last two games, specifically with runners in scoring position
“Just weren’t able to execute. We’ve talked about it throughout the course of the year, you got a chance to – those are two really good arms they threw today, 93, 96 (mph) by the starter, really good numbers by anything you look at, stuff objectively is really good, the closer’s got some of the best numbers I’ve seen throughout the course of the year – but again, we got to be able to get it done.
“Got some bases-loaded situations, weren’t able to do it. I know Reese (Chapman) took a good swing, and obviously Stone (Lawless) as well, so we were able to tag it. But when you get a chance to blow the game open early or put pressure on the guys, we just didn’t do it the last two days. So, that’ll be something that we’ll look at.
“But again, baseball, especially on the offensive side, can have some swings, but unfortunately we had two days where we didn’t execute at the level that we needed to at the end.”
On how he’d assess the season as a whole
“I think that’s a fair question. I don’t think I have an answer for that right now. I’m just thankful I’m sitting next to Reese Chapman. I remember picking him up in Hoover after that deal went down (line drive to the face), and to see him get to play and hit a homer like he did today and run around with a face mask and compete, gave us everything he had. It was a lot this year. It was. I really believe in the additions to the staff that we have and then also our players. We had some youth, or whatever it may be, but I’m really proud of how they stayed in it throughout the course of the year because it was not smooth sailing, and our league is unforgiving. Sometimes you get punched, it’s hard to get back up.
“But because of the makeup of guys like this right next to me, we were able to do that and fight our way into the postseason.”
On Cam Appenzeller, his performance and if there was any though of bringing him in for the fifth inning after Tegan Kuhns
“No, there wasn’t at that point. Again, Tegan was a curveball, we were gonna see what we kind of got. Then all of a sudden, it’s his best interest I think physically — it was a curveball. We thought we were going to be able to get 80, 90 pitches out of Tegan. We weren’t able to get there.
“With Appy throwing yesterday, with his future and his career, we got to be careful. I thought he was about 40 pitches. That’s what we were going to be able to get today. That was our attempt to try to bridge to get to him. They got us there in the middle. But at the same time with Appy, I thought that was good to see. That needs to be a good springboard into a good summer for him with Team USA and then next year on the weekend for us.”
On what characteristics make Reese Chapman such a beloved player in the program
“There’s a lot of ways I could go, but he’s just a winner, period. He’s a winning player, a winning person. He’s loyal. He’s a great friend. He’s a great teammate. He’s raised by great parents. Just the consistency of, like we talked about, maybe not getting the results he wanted at the beginning, but asking good questions. It’s funny, we used to talk when he was young, he would just say, ‘yes, sit’ to everything we said before we even finished saying anything. But just how far he’s come on a personal level to who he is now, and the guy’s going to have a ton of success in pro ball and then whatever else he does in life. But we’re fortunate to be around some really good players and some really good kids. And I think when you have people that some are your best players and your best people, that’s a really good formula for the future.
“These two right next to me, and we got some other ones too that— Reese will be gone, and some of these guys that will now be a little bit older that’ll anchor us and help our class coming in close that gap quickly.”
