One new Tennessee Vol is announcing his presence in a huge way on Saturday
A transfer portal gem has had a day to remember in his second day of the college baseball season.
Tennessee head coach Josh Elander has had some high praise for Rice two-way transfer Blaine Brown. Elander recently referred to Brown as a “dynamic talent.”
Turns out, he wasn’t kidding.
On Saturday, through the first ten innings of Tennessee’s doubleheader with Lehigh, Brown has had a major coming out party for the Vols. He slugged two home runs in the Vols’ 5-1 win in the first game, and he walloped a third in the bottom of the first inning to put Tennessee on the board in game two. Oh, and he laced a double in his next at bat in the second inning.
Rice transfer Blaine Brown has three home runs through ten innings of Vols’ doubleheader against Lehigh
With the first game tied at one in the fourth and two on with one out, Brown lifted one to right center and over the wall past the scoreboard for a commanding 4-1 lead.
Then, in his next at bat in the sixth and with the score the same, Brown took it upon himself to add more offense. He slugged a pitch out to center and off the batter’s eye for a solo home run and close the scoring for the game.
He didn’t wait long in the second game, and he showed that he’s got power to all fields, clubbing a pitch the opposite way and over the left field wall for home run number three in just ten innings.
Elander put everyone one notice about Brown earlier this week when he spoke with the media, and he talked about how he can utilize Brown’s “dynamic talent” at the plate, in the field, and on the mound.
“He’s just such a dynamic talent. I mean, you could argue he had the best weekend swinging the bat. I mean, the guy hits the ball regularly over 110 miles per hour. And then, you know, one thing we talked to him about is, again that was a big part of his recruitment process — what does the schedule look like, and how am I in a position to have success on both sides of the ball? We spent a ton of time kind of outlining different options, right? Because, again, do you start? Do you come out of the pen? Does he go from left field and then come in?
“So, what we went with yesterday was a pretty good little trial, we went with the pitcher-DH. So he opened up the game, and he was 93-95 (mph) with over seven foot of extension, really kind of cutting it loose. That velo ticked up a little bit. Then that gives him the freedom to then kind of just go to DH, so take focus, go get us some outs. So, there’s some opener capabilities there. Full confidence in him being able to start. But then also, I like the idea of, hey, maybe he comes in out of left field at one point.
“Again, there’s a lot of options we can do there, but a lot of that with Blaine will just be just communicating with him on how he’s feeling. It’s just dynamic talent on both sides of the ball.”
Granted, the competition is going to take several steps up as the season goes along, and that starts at the end of the month with a non-conference matchup with fellow College World Series contender UCLA. The greater tests will start then.
But for the time being, Brown has more than lived up to the talented and powerful hitter that his head coach has praised.
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