Blaine Brown rounded third base, echoing a line that head coach Josh Elander reverberates through the clubhouse.
“One swing away.”
Brown smoked a three-run shot over the right field wall, giving Tennessee baseball its seventh run of the seventh inning. The late-inning spurt helped the Vols overcome Bellarmine, 8-3, at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Tennessee (5-2) stepped to the plate in the seventh with one run in the score category. The Vols were 5-for-22 at the plate and 3-for-16 with runners on base through six innings.
Four hits, three errors and two walks resulted in seven runs by the time the seventh inning concluded.
“I think it’s just baseball,” Elander said. “It’s going to happen every now and then, right?”
Manny Marin’s 3-2 count swing ultimately was the one swing that was necessary for the rally. The sophomore did not start on Tuesday, entering the game as a defensive replacement in the fifth inning.
When he stepped to the plate in the seventh, he saw Hunter High aboard.
Chris Newstrom created the spark. He drew a leadoff walk in a full count to put a runner on with no outs. High followed by reaching base on a fielder’s choice that sent Newstrom back to the dugout.
As Marin stepped in for his first at-bat, he went hunting. He looked for a fastball on the inside — and that’s exactly what Evan Hart served up. Marin smacked the ball 365 feet to the porches in left field for his first bomb of the year.
“Coach E always says it — one swing away, no matter what,” Marin said. “It’s a good feeling. I think here at our ballpark, with our hitters, we’re always one swing away. The game could always be changed quick.”
And that it did change. Jay Abernathy executed a clean bunt to the first-base side, and he reached safely — his second successful bunt of the season.
It’s part of a practice strategy the Vols have been working on with the sophomore speedster, who’s batted at the top of the order for the second game in a row.
“Last year, we worked on bunting all the time and it really never clicked for him, right?” Elander said. “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.”
Henry Ford followed and reached safely on another fielding error. Both Abernathy and Ford stole bases on the next pitch, putting two in scoring position for Brown.
In a 2-1 count — riding 14 straight at-bats without a hit — Brown laced the ball 343 feet to the right side of the scoreboard.
“He’s been robbed of three or four over the last few days,” Elander said. “But again, it was funny. Blaine rounding third base was like, ‘one swing away.’ 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.”
Brown’s foot touching home was the last of the game for Tennessee. Though Tyler Myatt added a single in the inning to bring the entire order to the plate, Newstrom’s second at-bat brought a groundout before High popped out.
Tennessee baseball will need more than a one-inning burst when it takes the diamond next. The Vols hit the road for Globe Life Field on Friday, Feb. 27, to face No. 1 UCLA.
