What Josh Elander said after Tennessee baseball beat No. 4 Texas 14-9 to clinch series win

What head coach Josh Elander said after Tennessee baseball beat No. 4 Texas 14-9 to secure the series win Saturday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium:

If Saturday’s game was an example of taking punches and punching back

“Absolutely. I think Blanco did a good job of making adjustments. And kind of a quirky one there with the balk and kind of some other stuff right there at the beginning of the game. But someone that’s a freshman or younger, you give up three to the University of Texas, you can get in trouble pretty quick. But really good job by him, making the adjustments. But I think offensively, it was just an amazing response. Garrett Wright doing his thing, and then Trent (Grindlinger) just continues to get better and better. And, again, an offensive night in our park. But really good job by our crew of staying in it and then staying on the gas pedal because we needed those extra runs down the stretch.”

The confidence of staying with Evan Blanco in the fifth inning

“I think Blanco, I just trust him. Our starters have been very, very good for us, and I had Appy just moving around slowly. It’s that kind of that swing part of the game (of) where’s it going to go? You’re kind of figuring it out or reading how it’s going to go. So just want to make sure we have somebody moving around. Nobody’s getting hot. Just had some bodies getting hot. So I had some just bodies moving around. But again, the pitch count was low. Continue to throw strikes. Change up, breaker, even mixing some good curveballs tonight. So just a guy got a lot of confidence in and he likes to, he says himself, he wants to clean up his own mess, so we let him do that tonight.”

Garrett Wright and Trent Grindlinger home runs in the first inning homers after Texas went up 3-0

“I think they’re massive. Just to get the crowd back into the game, and then again, they hit the homer to left center. Not the cleanest first and kind of take the wind out of the sails. But I thought our crowd did a good job of keeping us in the game, and great job by Garrett (Wright) to stay to that ball and then Trent staying to the baseball as well. Those aren’t pull side, just hook in, guys cheating. It’s guys sticking with the approach and staying in the middle of the field. So that was great to see, but a lot of really good swings by our guys tonight. I’m just really proud offensively, how we executed it. We bunted, we moved guys over, situational hitting. There was a lot of different ways we scored some runs tonight. That was really good to see.”

What goes into hitting six home runs in a game

“I wish I knew because we would bottle it up and use it every day. But I think it’s just a byproduct of guys taking good swings and staying to the baseball. I think it was a little more offensive today. Even today, with the wind was kind of blowing in and across, but it was carrying a little bit more during BP. Just that time of year around here. But guys taking good swings, and when you hit them 107, 108 and get them at the right launch, they’re going to go anywhere.”

Getting to 13 SEC wins, if that’s something Tennessee coaches talk about with the team

“That’s a great question. One thing we try to do is in the fall, or really just kind of the early spring, is like make sure the guys know what they’re walking into. I remember, as a player, I didn’t even know how a regional went until I played one for the first time. Which is kind of crazy. So just want to make sure they know, ‘hey, what does this look like? How do you get to where you want to go?’ I think there needs to be a roadmap to that. But we do actually show them a slide in the fall where it’s ‘hey, here’s a percentage of 12 wins, 13 wins, 14 wins, 15 wins.’ And the whole point of that is so when we say, ‘hey, keep the ball in front or execute pitches like that, could be the difference between 13, 14, 15, 16, 12 or 11,’ and the difference between 13, 14, 15, we all know is it’s a huge swing as you go from there. But I thought our guys did a good job of really just— we didn’t have a good start to SEC play. There’s no question about it. But just staying in each day, that’s been my theme, just attack the day that you’re at. Try to win the game that you’re at. But good job by our guys to grind through. And that’s a really good club that we played the last two nights. But it’s good to get to that number for sure. But plenty of baseball left.”

Tennessee striking out just 11 combined times in the first two games

“I think our guys have done a good job at landing on off-speed pitches. Even little things like Levi Clark, there’s a lot of hits in the middle of the field, staying on heaters. I mean, some of those cross on 95-96 shooting balls foul, just deeper contact point, not trying to do too much, and just having some selfless at bats. And again, the ebbs and flows of the offense can be scary and exciting I think with any club that you go with. But I think Garrett Wright setting the tone, and then Grimmer’s had two good nights back-to-back. And Trent continues to do what he’s trying to do. So we’re trying to get those guys in spots where they can chain together some RBIs or execute in different ways. So that’s been good to see from our crew.”

The last two days showing Tennessee’s ceiling

“I just thought our guys played really good, fundamental baseball. Especially the first two days, throwing strikes, hitting the ball out of the ballpark. But I think a big part of it is this (Texas) is a power pitching staff. So one thing we talk about with our offensive players as the stuff gets better, if your effort level goes out of control, you start cheating or guessing the pitches they’re going to run you into the ground real quick. So I thought our guys have done a good job of executing and Tegan was, I mean, maybe the best performance we’ve seen in a long time. But I do think it’s everybody working together to win. I think it’s our offense, I think it’s our pitching. Think it’s our coaching staff, our administration, everybody that goes with the game ops management. You know, when Tony and I were recruiting all these guys on this team, we talked about playing in this park with all the suites done and the lights and the fireworks. And it’s pretty cool to see everybody working together to win and just little things like our crowd. Appy struggling a little bit to throw strikes there at the end. And they get on their feet. We get him through together. So it’s really cool to kind of see all that start to come into a good spot. But just a few days. We need to continue to play baseball, because this league is a bear.”

If the crowds are louder this season, or if he still goes back to the Drew Gilbert walk-off grand slam vs. Wright State

“That was crazy. I was saying some prayers over there to start that ninth inning down four versus that club, but I got some great memories. I know one looking back, was against Indiana, and think it was two or three years ago. It kind of blends together. It got so loud that the guy could not hear his pitch comm in any capacity, and ends up getting a couple balls, and then we end up hitting a double, and those guys go to work. So it can really change the game. It really is. I really feel like we have a true home-field advantage. When you get energy like that in the building, our guys really feed off of it. So hopefully there’s more of that to come.”

If he thinks the crowds are louder this season because there are more people

“Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, if you ask (Zach) Stovall, our director of analytics, I thought he had an air pod in. I’m like, ‘what are you doing?’ He had an ear plug because he’s like, ‘hey, it’s getting loud in here. I think (the crowds have) continued to get better, and that needs to be the theme for our club, too, to just keep getting better.”

What he’s seen from Tennessee freshman Trent Grindlinger the last month

“He’s just a complete hitter, just (his) ability to use the whole field, and he’s just getting stronger, too. Hats off to Keegan (Knoll). When he came in, his body, how he’s evolved from being kind of that younger kid, to now he’s getting that man strength and hitting balls 108 (mph), 109, 110. But again, he has — it’s very selfless and mature, where he’s at times where he’ll back up that thing, ‘hey, I’m just going to shoot this thing in the four hole.’ And the ability to do that, and have not only the ability to do it, but also to be able to make the decision at that age to not take too big of a swing or try to do too much. But you know, when you can use the whole field, you can throw up high exit velos, you play with confidence like he does every day, it’s a very, very dangerous combination, and good to see out of a true freshman.”

Tennessee pitcher Landon Mack being scratched from his scheduled start on Sunday

“Yeah, Landon, he’s not going to pitch tomorrow. Dealing with some general soreness. We’ll make sure he gets the highest level of care as always. But you know, that’s a guy that’s going to pitch in the major leagues for a long time. Has really, really good stuff. We’ll wait to get all the all the details as it plays out, but he will not throw for us tomorrow.”

If he anticipates Landon Mack being sidelined for a short period of time

“Don’t want to make any guesses at this point. We’ll see what doc and the rest of the crew have to say. But again, just kind of general soreness and excited to see him back out there.”

Who will start for Tennessee on Sunday in place of Landon Mack

“That’s a great question. (Tennessee pitching coach Josh Reynolds) and I will sit down and talk about it after this. We had talked about a couple different options, but just with how much respect I have for Coach Schlossnagle and his program, we were leaving Appy in that game to finish it. We’ll have to mix-and-match a little bit. We just got the Mack news pregame today, so we’ll get with the rest of the crew and figure out what we got.”

Tennessee taking advantage of Texas errors

“I think it’s just playing the game the right way. That’s what G-Wright does, whether it be hit by pitches or hard 90s. I mean, (Carson) Tinney is a phenomenal catcher, but if Garrett Wright doesn’t tear out of the box right there, and if he sulks, or throws his bat — just playing to win. Those are little things that are controllable. It’s hard 90s and that’s been a theme around here for a long time. And then it’s a great pitching staff we’re facing, but when you give extra outs to another team, it’s not a good strategy in this league, because there’s guys that can really get you. They got them and we got them tonight. Grimm was able to take advantage of that mistake. But hats off to G-Wright for playing the right way.”

The importance of Evan Blanco going seven innings to help the Tennessee pitching staff

“It was massive. I mean, that’s the thing. I’m sitting there, I had some guys kind of moving around in the fifth, like we talked about, just in case, ‘Hey, let’s see.’ Because that top three in the lineup is, you got to be careful on how you navigate it. But at the same time, that’s what we expect. He wants to go 100 (pitches). He wanted to keep pitching, of course, but I had to tell him, ‘Hey, man, we got a short week next week. You’ve done your job and you need to trust your teammates.’ But two incredible starting pitching performances back-to-back when they were desperately needed. Two great jobs back-to-back.”

Tennessee right fielder Reese Chapman going 2-for-4 with a home run

“Reese, I mean, we have high expectations for him always, and we just knew what the consistency that he brings with his approach every day, when you get to the sample size of the year, he’s going to have a good year. But hits the homer tonight, he makes the adjustment pregame, trying to get to the bottom of the cutter a little bit better. Not only just does it in pregame and then is able to execute it throughout the course of the game, but you know, throwing that guy out at second base is a huge deal at that point in the game. That guy, A-Rod (Adrian Rodriguez), gets to second, we got all kinds of issues going on there, but he’s just a winning player. He’s one of my favorites. I probably shouldn’t say that, but I’m glad he’s back this year, because we didn’t think he would be. He’s playing good ball right now.”