Tennessee baseball clinched its weekend series at Mississippi State on Saturday night, knocking off the Bulldogs 6-2 after jumping out to an early lead and never looking back.
Following the game, Tennessee head coach Josh Elander discussed Jay Abernathy’s big night, Tegan Kuhns’ start and much more. Here’s everything Elander said.
More From RTI: Tennessee Baseball Turns In Complete Performance To Clinch Series At Mississippi State
On how his team has responded to a rough few weeks
“We didn’t win last week, but it was good for our guys to get a series win on the road. That’s something we’ve talked about a bunch with our guys— is how important it is at any point in the SEC, it can flip for the better or the worse. So that’s something that’s got to keep working. But this is an unbelievable environment, and for our guys to come in and throw some punches and continue to chip in some runs there late to give our pitchers some breathing room is a really good sign for this club.”
On Tegan Kuhns’ outing
“Just what we asked him to do, to continue to attack the strike zone. I thought the fastball was really good. I mean, the vert was up to 22-23 at times, and he was really driving it in the bottom of the zone and at the top. So I thought it got those guys kind of in between, but had both breaking balls working and tip of the cap to the guy who hit the ball out there in seventh, but ton of confidence in T(egan) and still kept him under 100 pitches again. So be in a good spot going into next week too.”
On Jay Abernathy’s maturity, big performance
“Well, that’s what we expect— what we saw tonight. That’s Jay Abernathy. Using the whole field, not trying to do too much, lowering his launch and being short to the baseball and causing havoc on the bases and making great plays in the outfield. I mean that play in the eighth or ninth, or whatever it was, where him and Blaine were running close to each other, not a lot of guys are going to run that down that easily. So he’s a dynamic player. We’ve stuck with him. It’s nice to see him settle in a little bit.”
On the overall offensive approach over the weekend
“I think when you don’t have the success that you want. You have to take a bird’s eye view. Why are we not getting the success that we need? So really hasn’t been our process has been great. It’s how we go about it with the day-to-day. But now we’re making some adjustments with what our approach is, how we’re doing with the team within exactly what our guys are trying to do individually. But really the difference is, I think guys are settling in, playing with some confidence and not worried about any outside noise. Just playing ball.
On if his bullpen is pitching with more confidence
“They’ve been tremendous. And Arv is, I have a ton of confidence in him, and then Mack and then, really, everybody we’ve thrown, Appy, has been amazing. So those four have been great. My challenge for the ‘pen is, if we get to a Sunday, we got to mix and match, how are we able to do that with some of the younger guys. But those four put us in a great spot going into tomorrow, where we have a lot of bullets and should be an offensive day, being a day game. So we’ll see how it goes. But it’s good to see those guys have some success because we’ve taken some punches over the last few weeks, late in games.”
On how big it is for Tennessee’s confidence to win the first two games in the environment that Dude Noble Field presents
“It’s huge, I just think, for morale of the team. And you know, the theme this week (when) we were talking was like, ‘Oh no, here we go again.’ Or, ‘Have we been here before?’ So I thought our guys have really responded. I mean, this place gets going pretty good in the eighth and ninth, two nights in a row, but everybody in our dugout is starting to learn. We’ve had some expensive experience, but this league is all about hooking it up each day that you’re out and what you do next. Because if you’re worried about what you’ve done or what you could possibly do, you’re going to get beat.
“So I think our guys have done a good job of competing in the moment and working together, but I think the big part has been offensively, stacking a few more runs late to get us to a four to five-run lead, giving our bullpen a little bit more breathing room. Those guys have been attacking the strike zone.”
On Jay Abernathy’s sac bunt, Garrett Wright’s sac fly; how Tennessee is improving in small-ball situations
“Well, that’s good to see. I mean, we’re just trying to put pressure on them right there and not trying to do too much. Garrett, you know, stays on that ball to center. Jay, opens it up, and they defended a great — I mean, had a tough time getting it out of the glove, but that’s something we actually worked on in practice this week, so that’s a good sign. And getting our jumps on safety (squeeze) from third base, so credit to Manny (Marin) with a great slide, good jump over there. Just working together to win, that needs to be the key. It’s good to see the guys start to chain some of those things together.”
On the decision to switch things up and pitch Cameron Appenzeller out of the bullpen on Friday, and Brandon Arvidson on Saturday
“The simple one with Friday night is we haven’t won on Friday night since opening weekend of the SEC. We think the world of Cameron Appenzeller, but he’s kind of forced our hand to say hey, we got to get him the ball with the lead at some point, whatever it may be. Mack running by right there, did an amazing job, kind of battling through and getting us into the fifth inning. And, you know, those are two really good arms right there.
“But whether you go, hey, script (or) whatnot, I think you just have to be ready to — I told the guys, moving forward, let’s just win the game we’re at and we’ll worry about everything after that. So feel good about what Appy did, but moving forward, we’ll see how it goes because a ton of confidence in Arv and a bunch of those guys in the ‘pen.”
