Garrett Wright dropped the bat and immediately began his trek to first base. It was a dropped third strike, but Tennessee baseball’s leadoff man churned his way all the way to second base with an errant throw to the bag.
The fourth inning had two outs, and Wright should’ve been the third. Instead, Blake Grimmer followed with a walloping 398-foot home run to put Tennessee ahead 6-3. That was just a minor piece of the Vols’ manhandling of the Longhorns at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Saturday night.
Six home runs, 16 hits, 14 runs and five strikeouts at the plate will get the job done almost every time. Of course, scoring at least a run in every inning helps the matter of the cause, too. It did in the Vols’ 16-9 series-clinching win over No. 4 Texas — handing first-year skipper Josh Elander his first top-five series triumph at the helm.
“I think it’s just playing the game the right way,” Elander said.
Tennessee’s shortest blast of the game went 387 feet to the deepest part of the ballpark, while the rest went 401-feet, 396-feet, 398-feet, 400-feet and 409-feet to tie the most in a game this season. The Vols’ 16 base knocks also tied an SEC-best, matching a game three loss at Vanderbilt.
“I think it’s just a byproduct of guys taking good swings and staying to the baseball,” Elander said. “I think it was a little more offensive today.”
It begins with an approach at the plate, one that is credited to the preparation for the series. Tennessee practices in the lead-up consisted of a pitching machine on top of chairs on the mound. A strategy meant to emulate Dylan Volantis’ — Texas’s 6-foot-6 ace — mere seven-foot release point. In return, the Vols struck out just two times against the SEC’s third-best strikeout recorder, tallying six punchouts in total on Friday.
That bled into Saturday, where Tennessee’s lineup tallied five total strikeouts at the plate.
“I think everybody’s just not taking selfish at-bats,” said freshman Trent Grindlinger, who tallied a career-best four-hit night. “Everybody trusts all nine guys in the lineup, even the guys on the bench that could come in, and I’m just trying to pass the baton, compete up there for the guy next to you.”
Eleven strikeouts across a two-game set for Texas is tied for a season-worst. Texas A&M did the same on April 10 (seven strikeouts) and April 11 (four strikeouts) in a series that did not get to play a third game. It was also a weekend that Volantis did not get to pitch in — making the Vols’ two-game spurt all the more impressive.
“I think our guys have done a good job at landing on off-speed pitches,” Elander said. “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.”
On Saturday, Tennessee had six batters with a multi-hit night. That included Grindlinger’s four knocks, alongside two apiece from Blake Grimmer, Levi Clark, Reese Chapman, Manny Marin and Blaine Brown.
Wright only had one hit at the top of the order, but he made it worthwhile with a leadoff blast.
“He’s a great table setter,” Grindlinger said. “Yesterday, Volantis, obviously great pitcher, but he first pitch, smokes one to right, and just kind of gives everybody else confidence. If he could do it, we can all do it. So then, same thing today. Obviously, they punch first and then Garrett goes up there, punches right back, and then just kind of keeps them up from there.”
Grimmer, Grindlinger, Chapman, Marin and Stone Lawless joined Wright as home-run hitters in the clincher.
Tennessee continues to chase the 100-homer feat in a season, a mark the program has surpassed each of the previous four seasons. Recording 27 blasts over the last 11 SEC games helps the cause, perhaps guided by one metric.
“I think the warm weather’s helped a lot,” Grimmer said.
After Evan Blanco allowed a three-spot in the opening inning, Tennessee answered with six unanswered runs to take the lead, including Wright’s solo blast to lead off the bottom of the first. Even a two-run falter in the fifth was fine for Blanco, because the offense did the work it needed to — playing the right way.
“It is such a comforting feeling knowing that our offense has my back,” Blanco said. ”Whether it’s scoring five runs in one inning, which we’re kind of known to do, or just kind of scoring every inning, like we did tonight. I know that our approach is one of the best in the league, and also we got studs up and down the lineup, so it is a very comforting feeling.”
Tennessee goes for the series sweep on Sunday with a 12 p.m. ET first pitch.
