Tennessee baseball improved to 27-2 (8-1 SEC) by knocking off instate foe Tennessee Tech 7-1 on Tuesday night at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
AJ Russell made his return to the mound, a number of midweek arms threw and Tennessee’s offense relied on the long ball on a quiet night for the offense. Here’s how the Vols got it done.
Short But Effective Return For AJ Russell
AJ Russell returned to the mound on Tuesday, making his second appearance of the season and his first since Feb. 25. The previous appearance was Russell’s first since undergoing Tommy John surgery back in June.
There was never a setback for Russell but his recovery was so quick that they decided to slow things down a bit.
Much like his first outing, Russell’s second outing of the season was a short one. The right-handed pitcher threw just one inning, retiring the side with a pair of strikeouts around a two-out single. There were no signs of nerves from Russell, who was in the strike zone at an impressive rate. He threw 12 total pitches and 11 of them were strikes.
Russell’s fastball sat 94-95 mph and peaked at 95 mph on five separate pitches. That’s similar to what his velocity was in his first outing of the season against North Alabama.
The junior right-handed pitcher is one of the most talented on Tennessee’s roster. It will be interesting to see what Tony Vitello says postgame about his potential role this weekend against Texas A&M.
Blake Grimmer Keeps Dominating On Tuesday Nights
Vitello has lamented multiple times this season that he wants to get redshirt freshman slugger Blake Grimmer more at-bats. He’s taken matters into his hands over the last two weeks, starting Grimmer at designated hitter in each of the Vols’ last two midweek games.
Grimmer once again took advantage of his opportunity. The left-handed hitter torched the Golden Eagles. He opened up the scoring with a two-run line drive home run in the first inning. It was a 107 mph laser to right-center field to give Tennessee a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Hitting in the two-hole, Grimmer went two-of-four against Tennessee Tech with the previously mentioned homer.
Grimmer hasn’t gotten any SEC at-bats this season, but he has dominated pitching from smaller schools. Now in 20 plate appearances this season, Grimmer is hitting seven-for-14 with four home runs, five walks, one hit-by pitch and 14 RBIs.
The second year slugger has been so effective in his opportunities to this point, Grimmer is in line to get some pinch hit at-bats in SEC play at some point.
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Tennessee’s Offense Gets It Done With Long Balls
Tennessee’s bats started hot with the first inning Grimmer home run and they looked like they were going to continue on at a fast pace. The Vols scored two more runs in the second inning and another in the third to jump out to a 5-0 lead.
But Tennessee’s bats were quiet from there, failing to score again until the seventh inning.
The Vols created their offense with the long ball. Dean Curley hit the longest home run of the season to date for Tennessee, annihilating a 430-foot, two-run shot to left-center field in the second inning.
Freshman Chris Newstrom extended Tennessee’s lead in the seventh inning with a two-run homer to left field. It was Newstrom’s second home run in the orange and white. Newstrom has a nice day at the plate coming off the bench to go two-for-two.
A Few More Offensive Notes
Dalton Bargo continued his red-hot stretch at the plate, going two-for-two in his two at-bats. The left-handed junior is now on an eight-game hit streak with six multi-hit games over that stretch.
Hunter Ensley went just one-for-four but extended his hit streak to nine games in the process. He has five multi-hit games over that stretch.
Dean Curley had a multi-hit performance while Stone Lawless, Jay Abernathy and Ariel Antigua were hitless on the night. Lawless and Antigua both reached base on balls while Abernathy had a pair of hard hit outs.
Box Score
Up Next
Tennessee baseball is back home this weekend as they prepare to host Texas A&M in a rematch of the College World Series Final Series from last season. First pitch for the three-game series is at 7 p.m. ET on Friday night. ESPNU is broadcasting the opener.
