How Josh Elander’s loyalty has revived Tennessee baseball's offense

Blaine Brown got fooled a little bit.

The Tennessee baseball left fielder was out in front of a breaking ball from Alabama’s Matthew Heiberger, but it didn’t matter. He reached out and ripped it anyway. The ball crashed into the brick ball at the back of the Vols bullpen in right field.

Brown shrugged his shoulders and held his arms up as he rounded first base.

“We like that Blaine,” Vols coach Josh Elander said. “We’d like to see some more of him. But I think just credit to our staff and him getting to a good spot mentally and us sticking with him, too.” 

A week after Levi Clark snapped into form with a two-homer game, Brown burst into form against Alabama with a two-homer showing Sunday that capped a scorching week for the sophomore. 

Both have slumped this season. Both have continued to be in the lineup. Both are a big part of the reason Tennessee’s offense has flipped a switch in the back half of SEC play — and it’s because Elander stuck with them through struggles.

“Maybe it’s a fault,” Elander said. “We’ll see. But loyalty is a big thing. It always has been in this building and belief in the guys.”

It could have been argued, at times, this season that Elander’s loyalty has been a fault. But that argument has lost merit. It’s clearly a reason for the offensive revival. He didn’t give up on his guys because a good coach knows his guys — and Elander is a good coach. 

Clark and Brown are the leading examples of that. As Tennessee had teamwide struggles and searched for offensive answers, Elander has rolled them into the lineup game after game. 

“That just gives me all the belief in myself,” Brown said. “I know if he is able to believe in me even when I am down, I know I can believe in myself even in those situations.”

It has paid off. Now, they are in the middle of the success. 

Tennessee (29-15, 10-11 SEC) has scored 42 runs in its past four SEC games with 13 homers. Clark has been smashing balls all over the park whether he has results to show for it or not. Brown is on a heater after going 8-for-16 with three homers and two doubles in his past four games. 

They always have been two of Tennessee’s best bats and now they’re performing like it.

Both talked in the past week about struggles just being part of baseball. They each navigated the challenges with the coaching staff, working on their approaches and swings to correct issues. Clark is trying to work to the middle of the field consistently. Brown worked to slow down and to let the ball get deeper into the strike zone. 

Clark got a brief reset earlier in the season. He came back in the lineup and has performed. He’s one of UT’s best hitters in SEC play and is slugging .554 in conference play.

Brown looked like he needed a day off a week earlier. He showed increased patience at the plate and has looked irreplaceable since because Elander didn’t waver in his confidence in the toolsy lefty.

“There’s a lot of guys I believe in in that lineup,” Elander said. “It’s good to see him have some success and the credit all goes to them. But I’m a big believer, working with the hitters for a long time, you’re always one swing away from getting real hot.”

The pair stands as two of Tennessee’s most important — and certainly its most powerful — hitters along with Henry Ford and Blake Grimmer. Ford is likewise on a hot streak, while Grimmer had a three-homer game against Ole Miss.

Those are the four leading home run hitters and run producers in Tennessee’s lineup in SEC play. They have accounted for 23 of Tennessee’s 34 SEC homers and 66 of its 124 RBIs. 

Tennessee’s ceiling has long hinged on what those four can do — especially Brown and Clark, who are more gifted than their statistics show. It is creeping closer to that ceiling now that the pair is delivering because Elander kept writing their names in the lineup card with confidence. 

“It’s easy to bet on makeup for good kids and we have a lot of those guys in the building,” Elander said.

That’s a bet Elander made — and he’s cashing in now.