‘Just immaturity across the board’ — Josh Elander puts his hitters on blast after Tennessee’s loss to Wright State
The Vols’ skipper was blunt with his assessment of his players on Sunday.
The Tennessee Vols have had a manager from whom fans are used to hearing some eyebrow-raising quotes in Tony Vitello. It appears as though they have another one who will speak his mind in Josh Elander.
The Vols’ skipper spoke with the media after Tennessee’s 6-0 loss to Wright State on Sunday afternoon, which allowed the Raiders to avoid the sweep.
In particular, Elander spoke his mind very freely and was blunt about the Vols’ lackluster offensive approach at the plate.
Josh Elander said Tennessee hitters showed ‘immaturity across the board’ on Sunday in loss to Wright State
“Yeah, just immaturity across the board,” Elander said in his postgame press conference. “I mean, guys taking huge swings when we’re down three. I mean, in between, on heaters and changeups, a lot of pull-side ground ball misses, and I think we hit 12 or 13 fly ball outs. You know, 50-plus degree launch (angle), and the math is very simple on that. You’re out when you do that.
“So, for us to not make the adjustment collectively, or to coach them better to where they can make those adjustments throughout the game, left a really bad taste in everybody’s mouth after otherwise a pretty good week for our crew.”
As for how to make those changes, Elander put it back again on his players and being able to understand the game situations and trying to keep their emotions from getting out of hand.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of different ways, but it needs to be a commitment from the players, too, to make the adjustments within the game and control their emotions, and not try to do too much. I think you get those bigger swings, and it’s just self-awareness, like we talked about yesterday. I mean, guys trying to do too much. You need to work together, get some traffic on the bases in that scenario. And this offense is more than capable, but to this point, it has not been anywhere close to what the standards of this team and what the previous teams here have been.”
Tennessee got an 0-30 showing at the plate between Jay Abernathy, Levi Clark, Chris Newstrom, and Stone Lawless over the weekend at the bottom of the order. That’s not going to cut it against anyone.
The message that Elander appears to be sending is not subtle. Time and place. No hero ball. Base hits and walks are just fine when you’re down multiple runs. Understand and handle the situation as the game stands each at bat.
We’ll see if that message was received by next weekend, when Tennessee opens up SEC play against Georgia on Friday in Athens.
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