UT outfielder-pitcher Drew Steckenrider changed the game from both the plate and the mound, helping the Vols (15-10) to an 8-4 win over Mississippi Valley State (6-20) on Wednesday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Down 3-1 in the third, Steckenrider drilled an offering from Mississippi Valley State starter Kameron Stady for a two-RBI double to right field.
“I was just trying to see a pitch up, get something I could drive into a gap,” Steckenrider said. “And he left a pitch up over the plate that was inner-half, and I just turned and shot one down the line.”
The team, which had struggled with the bats coming into the contest, came alive with four doubles on the night.
“I know a couple of guys were due,” Steckenrider said. “I was definitely one of those guys, and it definitely felt good to get two hits, a multi-hit game, and bring my confidence back. I know it’s got some guys feeling good going into this weekend.”
Steckenrider’s other hit was an RBI single to center field in the eighth. He also got on base with a hit batsmen in the fifth and a walk in the sixth.
But perhaps the most pivotal moment for Steckenrider came in the sixth inning when he moved from right field to the mound. He entered with inherited runners on second and third, one out and a 7-4 lead.
Steckenrider coaxed two force outs from two straight batters to get out of the inning, unscathed.
While there is less room for error when coming in with inherited runners, Steckenrider said his pitching strategy is the same.
“You don’t want to change your approach too much,” he said. “Just pound strikes, and get out of the jam.”
UT head coach Dave Serrano called Steckenrider’s pitching in the sixth a turning point in the game.
“Steck coming in and getting those outs was huge,” Serrano said. “I thought it changed the momentum back to us when they started to get the momentum back.”
The Vols fell behind 3-0 after a disastrous, 45-pitch first inning from UT left-handed starter Brandon Zajac.
Despite the early 3-0 deficit, Serrano enjoyed seeing the team battle back into the game.
“I would rather take that kind of game than if we would have come out and really beat them up early on and have a blowout game,” Serrano said. “Our team needed that. They needed to respond to some negativity, and we did.”
The coach stressed the importance of breaking up the game into frames.
“They put three on the board in the first, and then from the second inning on, we won five straight innings,” Serrano said. “And that’s important — to chip away. We talk a lot about winning innings, not winning the game, winning innings. The way I like to describe it — the game of baseball is nine, one-inning frames, winning one-inning frames at a time. And I thought we did a good job with that.”
The game did not begin until 7:32 p.m. because the Mississippi Valley State bus broke down. Still, Mississippi Valley State took the early lead.
“That’s what’s so beautiful about this game,” he said. “Here’s a team that got here late, wasn’t able to take infield-outfield, wasn’t able to take BP (batting practice), and they put a three on the board in the first inning. So it’s all about a mindset and how bad you want it. And I’m glad we responded to that.”
Steckenrider echoed Serrano’s inning-at-a-time mentality.
“We had a lot of ballgame left,” Steckenrider said. “We still had nine at-bats. We knew we had nine innings to try to put some runs on the board, and we just wanted to try to go up and put one up each inning, one every inning that we could.”
