Tennessee baseball got back in the win column Tuesday night, knocking off Bellarmine 8-3 on a cold February night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. The Vols led 1-0 before opening things up with a seven-run seventh inning.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander discussed Garrett Wright’s season debut, the big seventh inning and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
More From RTI: Big Seventh Inning Propels Tennessee Baseball To Midweek Victory Over Bellarmine
On Tennessee scoring seven runs in the seventh inning to break the game open
“Yeah, it was great, good to see some balls drop in there and Blaine (Brown) puts a good swing on one. I mean, he’s been robbed of three or four over the last few days. But again, it was funny. Blaine rounding third base was like, ‘one swing away.’ You know, that’s one thing we always talk about, is one swing away from getting hot, whether it be individually or as a group. So that was really good to see us put that crooked number together right there.”
On what was different about Tennessee’s offense in the seventh inning compared to the first six innings
“I think it’s just baseball. It’s going to happen every now and then, right? I mean, our situational execution, we practice that every Wednesday. It’s one of our main things of the week, and it’s all these different scenarios to try to prepare them. And then if you look at how we execute there versus last weekend, which is behind us now, it wasn’t even close, right? So again, you just got to stick with what works over a bigger sample size, and that’s what we’re going to continue to work with because I like this offensive group. They’ve taken some good swings, but we need to string them together. But that was a good sign tonight.”
On Tennessee sophomore infielder Manny Marin going 2-for-2 off the bench with a two-run home run
“It was great. I think it was needed to say the least. I mean, again, didn’t have a great weekend. Was messing with the hand, getting back, and then again, just taking a really good swing. It was good to see him drive a ball. Try to challenge him, he’s not in the starting lineup to start the day and goes out there and hits a homer, and dives and keeps the ball in the infield, and hunts down the six holes. So it’s good to see him do that tonight.
On his comfort level with Tennessee redshirt sophomore Tyler Myatt out in left field
“Pretty good after tonight. We were joking, he’s like a gold glover running around out there. But, you know, we joke that, you know, at Walter’s (State) last year, he really just DH’d and then he tells me pre-game, he goes, ‘Yeah, you know, I played centerfield in high school, right?’ I thought he was lying to me to be honest with you. He made some good plays and was tested, but it’s funny, you give a guy an opportunity like that, and I’m always trying to watch during BP because, we’re throwing or whatnot, but there’s some of those guys have been going out there on their own. They’re kind of smelling blood, for lack of a better term. So guys are going out there getting some reps, and so just kind of watch them out of the corner of my eye, and they did a great job out there tonight.”
On how he plans to deal with the inconsistencies of the offense
“Yeah. Well, it’s baseball, right? I mean, you’re going to have a little bit of everything, right? I mean, in a perfect world, we’d score five, six every inning, but that’s not how the game works, right? So again, I think one thing that’s important is that we get the leadoff guy on. Our guys, our mentality needs to be that’s a run regardless of who we’re facing. And again, in scoring position, not trying to do too much. Again, just what is our plan? How do we execute?
“Sometimes it’s trickier those free ABs, where it’s clean, is where guys can kind of get lost in the at-bats, whereas, when you have, like, a singular focus on what is the task, if they really commit to it, they can have success, right? But the more they do it, more they get out there, I mean, these guys need — I mean, it’s a young group offensively. They’re very talented, but they need to be seasoned a little bit. And I think the more we get them out there, that was the best part of the night, was getting a bunch of guys out there on the field, on both the mound and at the plate, and on defense. Because the more reps we get, the better this team will get.”
On how Tennessee will work on that throughout the week in practice
“Yeah, I mean, I think again, just competitive element every day, whether it be just our situational hitting or what we’re doing. But you know, right now on Wednesdays, we call it Wednesday Work Day, where it’s, again, we’re going to knock out a fundamental, and then we’re going to lace it up, where we basically put runners in different scenarios, and we throw some challenging things (at them). Maybe they start with an 0-2 count, or runner at third with the infield back. So we’ve been doing that for, you know, as much as we’ve been able to, to get outside. And again, that was my theme. Hey, good night tonight, but tomorrow’s a work day, and I’m going into the weekend, so we’ll continue to work on that throughout the spring.”
On Tennessee C/CF Garrett Wright (broken hamate bone) making his debut in centerfield against Bellarmine, if he’s at a point to where he can catch and hit
“So the latest update there is, he’s swinging the bat and has not hit off like velocity or anything yet, but he’s making great progress. And you know, we started throwing him in live defenses last week, and he can really throw and cover some ground. There’s obviously less impact catching a fly ball than, you know, catching some of our guys on the mound, but he was able to put the gear on for the first time yesterday, so still a little bit of a progression. But I thought it was cool to get him out there tonight, maybe get some of those first butterflies out. But another guy like, kind of Myatt running around in BP, he’s been running around like a madman, getting better and getting those reps in. So again, you talk about an experienced, talented kid. I mean, that’s another guy we’re excited to get back in the mix. But got to be smart with that deal, because it’s a little bit of pain tolerance, but at the same time, it’s very different from playing the outfield and catching.”
On if he thinks Garrett Wright will be limited to being a defensive replacement this weekend in Texas
“I would think so. I would think so.”
On his assessment of Taylor Tracey two inning outing
“It was good. I mean, again, the thing he’s really been working on is just the vert on his fastball. There’s some inconsistencies there. Sometimes it’s in that 14 to 16 range, which can get you in trouble. But then he’s been north of, like 20 to 23, right? So sometimes you got to fight the elements with that a little bit. But quick outs is what I saw, just no fear. I mean, he comes from a great family, and he grew up not too far from where I did, right? So we know a lot of common people over there. I’ve coached him, and he’s always been tough, and I really need to get him in the mix swinging the bat. He can really swing it too. But, again, that’ll be the next step, as he gets set— when he got hit in the hand a few weeks ago behind him— but attacking the strike is all good stuff. You do that, if our guys play defense, we feel good about it.”
On how Jay Abernathy changes things swinging the bat the way he is at the top of the lineup
“He’s got a little mojo going right now. It’s pretty cool. I mean, last year we worked on bunting all the time, and it really never clicked for him, right? But we talk about those situational scrimmages, we’ve been doing it where, hey, his job is to execute a bunt, and if he gets it done, he gets another at-bat. But if he doesn’t, then he doesn’t get that at-bat. So it’s funny how sometimes that works out. But that 40 tonight, which for us is a push bunt to the first base side was really well done. I mean, the tempo and the timing, and then again, the foot speed is game changing speed. But now he’s got a 40 down and a 50, so basically a drag and a push to both sides, and hit a homer last weekend. So he can do a lot of different things, but it’s cool to see when guys get to year two, and then instead of hoping to have success that they believe and expect to and I think Jay’s getting in that category quickly.”
On Blaine Brown pitching with runners on, what’s next for him on the mound
“Yeah, I think you know (pitching coach Josh) Reyn(old), and I’ve talked about that a bunch. It’s like, when do we stretch him? But the conversations we’ve had in the fall, he was throwing 40, 50, 60, pitches and the workload was tough with all the swings. He’s so dynamic with the bat, and he could change the game in one swing. So I think we’ve tried to really focus to where we compartmentalize how he attacks pitching versus how he attacks hitting. And again, didn’t have a great weekend last weekend swinging the bat, so he was here early with (associate head coach) Chuck (Jeroloman) this morning, swinging the bat, and we had our early hitting. Took some good swings. So it’s kind of the delicate balance of like the reps and keeping the long term in mind, but we’ll continue to kind of roll with that for now, but I think it could evolve into more. But a lot of it is workload and keeping a big picture in mind with Blaine.”
On preparing to face three teams in three games this weekend
“Well we got great people in the building. The real work is for, you know, Zach Stovall, our Director of Baseball Strategy, because it’s a lot of teams and a lot of stuff that you got to put together. But what’s cool is we get to go to a Major League venue in a great state. I’m a little biased, I know, but we get to play indoors. We had a great time last year, or we went in 2024, but great competition. That’s what you want. Major League ballpark verse other big leaguers all over the place, and at this time of year, we need reps. So like, let’s go play. It’s going to be great weather. Let’s find out what we got. We’ll continue to move the the lineup and stuff along. But, again, really for us, it’s attack tomorrow first, and then we’ll get to Thursday and go from there. So again, they do a good job of letting you have an extended practice. Get a feel for the stadium down there. It’ll be great competition all weekend. And this is the weekend we’ve obviously had circle for a long time, but we’ll attack tomorrow first.”
On what he’s highlighting entering the weekend
“Well, I mean, you could go a lot of different ways with that, right? I mean, again, you have championship level programs right from all over the country. I mean, Coach (John) Szefc at Virginia Tech’s done a great job forever. Then Arizona State has been to Omaha a million times, and everybody knows UCLA was, or is, the No. 1 team going into the country with some household names and whatnot. But again, we’ve always talked about just attack the day that you’re at. So we’ll get to Wednesday first, and then we’ll get to the weekend. But I would expect our guys to have a little bit of juice going into the weekend.”
On if Cameron Appenzeller threw just one inning to keep him fresh entering the weekend
“Yes, 100%. I think Reyn and I sat down and talked about it extensively, and again, just how we did some of the pitching stuff like, again, we have the plan (and) you got to adjust on the fly. But I think with what he brings to the table with the strike throwing and stuff like we’re talking about, I won’t give you everything right now, but we’re starting about stacking those guys up with some different looks going into this weekend, and as we get closer to SEC play.”
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