No. 24-ranked Tennessee rode on the back of a monstrous offensive start and shut down pitching by its bullpen to beat West Georgia, 13-0, in seven innings Tuesday night in Knoxville, Tennessee.
In Cam Appenzeller’s last two outings, he gave up six runs over 2 1/3 innings to Ole Miss and four runs in 3 1/3 innings to Alabama. In an attempt to get him back on track, Tennessee gave him an inning of work to start Tuesday’s game.
“Just wanted to get [Appenzeller] back out there and let him go through the normal day, get him in the good routine,” Elander said. “[Appenzeller] is the one who came up to me with the idea.”
Appenzeller was efficient in his inning of work, striking out two to get around a single and have a shutout inning.
“I thought the breaking ball had a little more depth tonight and again, just let him go through that [preparation and outing] and get in a little feel-good outing. I thought it was important before we got up to Lexington, [Kentucky],” Elander said.
Tennessee’s offense set the tone in a big way in the first inning. After the first two batters were retired on fly balls, back-to-back singles by Blake Grimmer and Trent Grindlinger kept the inning alive. Then, Reese Chapman and Levi Clark each launched monster home runs to right and left field, respectively, with both leaving the bat at over 106 mph to put Tennessee ahead 4-0.
Limiting Appenzeller to just one inning, Elander went to Ethan Baiotto out of the bullpen to start the second. Baiotto made quick work of the West Georgia lineup, retiring the side in order.
Tennessee’s offense again leaned on the long ball in the bottom of the second, as it launched two more home runs and scored four runs before recording an out. The Vols scored one more on an RBI single by Chapman before West Georgia recorded the third out.
The early 9-0 lead allowed Elander and his coaching staff to give a lot of bench players a chance to play. Chris Newstrom, Tyler Myatt, Hunter High, Stone Lawless, Nate Eisfelder and Ariel Antigua all made it into the game, but Eisfelder was the star of the bench squad.
In his first at bat of the night, Eisfelder launched the fifth and final home run of the game to left field to give Tennessee a 10-0 lead in the fourth. The freshman was making only his 12th appearance of the season and wasted no time joining the fun.
“[Eisfelder] just has a feel and a natural box presence that is beyond his years, and he’s doing a good job,” Elander said. “He’s just wired that he wants to continue to get better.”
Batting .333 with two home runs in his limited playing time this season, Eisfelder mentioned his passion for being a student of the game, learning especially from his teammates.
“Being with the guys, especially some of the veterans like [Henry] Ford, Reese [Chapman], and obviously Trent [Grindlinger] is becoming one. I just got to learn,” Eisfelder said. “I like to learn more about the game each and every day, and I feel like, having those guys around me, it’s been nice.”
Tennessee ended up scoring another run in the fifth inning on an RBI groundout by Newstrom and two more runs in the sixth on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by Antigua. The offensive explosion was just the latest of a new trend for Tennessee’s offense.
“I think it’s just guys staying on fastballs. That’s what we’ve been preaching in the hitters meetings, and I feel like when we hit our fastballs, that’s when we’re the best,” Eisfelder said. “We kind of got off the fastball early on in the year… we’ve made some adjustments, and I think it’s worked out in our favor.”
While Tennessee’s offense exploded with 14 hits and 13 runs, its pitching staff also pitched lights out.
Nine Tennessee pitchers combined for seven shutout innings, allowing just four scattered hits and striking out nine. Everyone was fantastic, but after Appenzeller’s feel-good inning to start the game, Brayden Krenzel’s stood out as the next most notable performance.
Krenzel threw 1 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit and striking out one. Maybe not the most dazzling final, but Elander knew the impact of yet another strong outing for Krenzel.
“I think that’s now three or four [outings] in a row that have been pretty clean for the most part,” Elander said. “He’s a guy I had a ton of confidence in, just wanted to make sure he was able to stack [multiple strong outings] and get his feet back underneath him, and he’s getting close, if not, being ready.”
Tennessee is back in the Baseball America Top 25 for the first time since March 24. With an upcoming series against unranked Kentucky, Tennessee will look to continue its momentum from last weekend’s series win over Alabama and continue to climb the national leaderboard as the regular season comes to an end.
Game 1 will be at 6:30 p.m. ET Friday in Lexington, Kentucky.
