Vols freshman makes honest admission that shows why Tennessee baseball has struggled early under Josh Elander
The Tennessee Vols have experienced some early-season struggles in year one of the Josh Elander era. Specifically, Tennessee has had some trouble hanging on to late leads against SEC opponents.
It’s been a tough start to the Josh Elander era for the Tennessee Vols baseball program.
The Vols are 20-12 through the first 32 games of the season. That’s not a terrible record, but it would look a lot better if Tennessee could finish games more consistently.
This past weekend, the Volunteers led LSU in the eighth inning of all three games. Tennessee, however, only managed one win in the series after blowing two of those leads.
Sunday’s loss was particularly painful as the Vols blew a 5-0 lead before giving up 10 runs to LSU in the 12th inning to lose 16-6.
Tennessee has lost three of its four SEC series this season. And things won’t get easier this upcoming weekend as the Vols are set to travel to Starkville for a weekend series against the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Vols freshman makes candid admission about Tennessee’s struggles
Vols freshman catcher/DH Trent Grindlinger met with reporters after Tennessee’s loss to LSU and made an admission that helps explain some of the Vols’ early-season struggles in year one under Elander.
“We got out of the gate hot,” said Grindlinger when asked about Tennessee only collecting five hits in 12 innings on Sunday. “I think we kind of just got complacent. Just kind of let innings go by. But other than that, I thought we competed well.”
Blown leads have been an unfortunate theme for the Vols this season.
Tennessee blew a 5-0 lead in the rubber game against the Georgia Bulldogs last month. The Vols also blew a 15-10 lead in the ninth inning of the rubber game against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Those results combined with Grindlinger’s comments about complacency indicate this team is having trouble keeping their foot on the gas when they build big leads. And that simply can’t be the case in the SEC — as Elander is well aware.
“It can swing in a hurry,” said Elander on Sunday of leads disappearing in SEC games. “Our guys need to manage everything that comes with a Sunday SEC game a little bit better. And it starts with me. I have to make sure that we’re putting them in a position to do that.”
Elander is still finding his way as a head coach. He’s going to make mistakes — especially in a sport as unpredictable as baseball. But he’ll learn from those mistakes. I certainly don’t think it’s fair to judge the job he’s done as a coach just yet (let’s let the entire season play out first).
But at the same time, the mindset in the dugout clearly needs to change if the Vols are going to close out some of these SEC games when holding a late lead.
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