Everything Josh Elander said on 5-4 loss to VCU in elimination round of Chapel Hill Regional

Chapel Hill, N.C. — For the first time in program history, Tennessee baseball went 0-2 in an NCAA Regional as No. 4-seed VCU eliminated the Vols 5-4 on Saturday afternoon in the Chapel Hill Regional at Boshamer Stadium.

Tennessee (38-22) was the No. 2 seed in the regional and dropped both games to lower-ranked seeds, starting with the 7-3 loss to No. 3 East Carolina in 14 innings on Friday. VCU stays alive and on Sunday will play the loser of Saturday’s second game between No. 1 North Carolina and No. 3 East Carolina.

Tegan Kuhns (L, 5-5) took the loss for the Vols after allowing three runs on four hits in four innings of work. Elias Holbert (W, 4-1) got the win after a career-high 10 strikeouts in six innings, giving up three runs.

Tennessee had the tying run at third base to end the eighth inning. Garrett Wright, Trent Grindlinger and Reese Chapman had two hits each. Chapman and Lawless both homered and drove in two runs.

Up Next: Tennessee’s season ends with a 38-22 overall record after going 0-2 in the Chapel Hill Regional with losses to 3-ssed ECU and 4-seed VCU. The Vols will now turn their attention to the transfer portal that officially opens on Monday.   

Opening Statement…

“Congrats to VCU. They beat us today. Just want to tell these guys – especially right here (Stone Lawless and Reese Chapman) – it’s been a crazy year for us, and (I) love how they stayed in it. Got some good memories with these two right here to say the least. But I think the game has told us we need to make some adjustments. We’ll make those in the offseason. Excited to continue to get better. But, congrats to VCU and thank you to everybody in North Carolina for a premiere set up for a regional.” 

Josh Elander on the adjustments that need to be made in the offseason…

“That’s a great question. Just walking right off the field, I think the main thing is to get back with the staff, and we’ve been very fortunate to win a lot of regionals in a row. That’s now come to an end, so I think we need to look at everything holistically and just try to get better. That needs to be a theme. So, we’ll have those conversations, but nothing specific with just the emotions of coming right off the field.”

Josh Elander on what bothered Tegan Kuhns, how he’s feeling and why the velo dipped…

“Tegan, he’s a warrior, he’s a winner. He’s going to pitch in the big leagues for a long time. Whoever’s lucky enough to get him with their first pick is going to be very lucky. It’s a guy who’s been sick the last two or three days. He’s running back and forth. You guys can guess where in between innings. (He was) trying to put himself in a good spot. Hydrating. Gave us everything he had, and (I’m) just proud of how he competed today because he gave us everything. But physically, arm health is in a great spot. He’s going to pitch for a long time.”

Josh Elander on what stands out about the offensive issues the last two games, specifically with runners in scoring position…

“Just weren’t able to execute. We’ve talked about it throughout the course of the year, you got a chance to – those are two really good arms they threw today, 93, 96 (mph) by the starter, really good numbers by anything you look at, stuff objectively is really good, the closer’s got some of the best numbers I’ve seen throughout the course of the year – but again, we got to be able to get it done. 

“Got some bases-loaded situations, weren’t able to do it. I know Reese (Chapman) took a good swing, and obviously Stone (Lawless) as well, so we were able to tag it. But when you get a chance to blow the game open early or put pressure on the guys, we just didn’t do it the last two days. So, that’ll be something that we’ll look at. 

“But again, baseball, especially on the offensive side, can have some swings, but unfortunately we had two days where we didn’t execute at the level that we needed to at the end.”

Josh Elander on how he’d assess the season as a whole…

“I think that’s a fair question. I don’t think I have an answer for that right now. I’m just thankful I’m sitting next to Reese Chapman. I remember picking him up in Hoover after that deal went down (line drive to the face), and to see him get to play and hit a homer like he did today and run around with a face mask and compete, gave us everything he had. It was a lot this year. It was. I really believe in the additions to the staff that we have and then also our players. We had some youth, or whatever it may be, but I’m really proud of how they stayed in it throughout the course of the year because it was not smooth sailing, and our league is unforgiving. Sometimes you get punched, it’s hard to get back up. 

“But because of the makeup of guys like this right next to me, we were able to do that and fight our way into the postseason.”

Josh Elander on Cam Appenzeller, his performance and if there was any though of bringing him in for the fifth inning after Tegan Kuhns…

“No, there wasn’t at that point. Again, Tegan was a curveball, we were gonna see what we kind of got. Then all of a sudden, it’s his best interest I think physically — it was a curveball. We thought we were going to be able to get 80, 90 pitches out of Tegan. We weren’t able to get there.

“With Appy throwing yesterday, with his future and his career, we got to be careful. I thought he was about 40 pitches. That’s what we were going to be able to get today. That was our attempt to try to bridge to get to him. They got us there in the middle. But at the same time with Appy, I thought that was good to see. That needs to be a good springboard into a good summer for him with Team USA and then next year on the weekend for us.”

Reese Chapman on what this program means to him and what Josh Elander means to him…

“First off, I wanted to thank my Lord and Savior for allowing me to play this weekend. This program means everything to me. I told Vol Nation that I would give my all for Tennessee and that that’s the theme for the University of Tennessee. I wouldn’t change anything from my last four years here. 

For my skipper right here to the right of me, I will do anything for him. I’ve been fortunate enough to know him since I was 14. He’s family to me and I feel like I’m family to him. I’ve just been fortunate enough that he’s been able to make me a better baseball player but an even better person.”

Reese Chapman on the emotions and conversations in the outfield with the team after the loss…

“You let the emotions go. I think we’re all manly enough to let it fly. It’s alright to cry in front of your brothers. I think it’s just some of the guys like me that I won’t be here next year – just saying goodbye to the younger guys. Also telling them it’s their program now and just to go be the dude. Learn from our mistakes and don’t make them again.”

Stone Lawless on the emotions and conversations in the outfield with the team after the loss…

“Yeah, same. It’s tough. Obviously, you got to show a lot of emotion. I think it’s important to kind of tell each guy like how proud of him you are and how much you love him. Especially like my guy like Reece right here. We’ve been through it my whole time here. Obviously, he’s been here a year longer. But breaks my heart to see that this is his last game. So, there’s not much to talk about. Just a lot of embracing. A lot of love and just letting loose of that emotion.”

Josh Elander on what characteristics make Reese Chapman such a beloved player in the program…

“There’s a lot of ways I could go, but he’s just a winner, period. He’s a winning player, a winning person. He’s loyal. He’s a great friend. He’s a great teammate. He’s raised by great parents. Just the consistency of, like we talked about, maybe not getting the results he wanted at the beginning, but asking good questions. It’s funny, we used to talk when he was young, he would just say, ‘yes, sit’ to everything we said before we even finished saying anything. But just how far he’s come on a personal level to who he is now, and the guy’s going to have a ton of success in pro ball and then whatever else he does in life. But we’re fortunate to be around some really good players and some really good kids. And I think when you have people that some are your best players and your best people, that’s a really good formula for the future. 

These two right next to me, and we got some other ones too that— Reese will be gone, and some of these guys that will now be a little bit older that’ll anchor us and help our class coming in close that gap quickly..”

Reese Chapman On being proud of holding things together and making the NCAA Tournament after a bad start…

“I mean, we’ve been telling each other that we’ve been playing playoff baseball for the last month, fighting our way through. I mean, we dug ourself the hole, and we were fighting our way through, but it was just us making the decision to come together. Not allowing emotions to get the best of us. And just go out there and play a kid’s game. Have fun playing the game that you grew up love playing. I mean, I’m fortunate enough to end the year and just say that I have 45 new brothers, lifelong brothers that I can pick up the phone and call at any moment.”

Stone Lawless On being proud of holding things together and making the NCAA Tournament after a bad start…

“I think the biggest part was we just, we knew what we wanted as a group, right? We didn’t want this year to just continue to go downhill and be done at the end of the season after the SEC Tournament. And we relied on each other. We had a lot of pride in that. And the coaching staff always says like, ‘go take what you want.’ So we hooked it up as a team. We trusted each other. There was never any bickering inside the locker room. We just continued to get closer. But there was outside noise. We made sure to just use that as motivation to kind of get closer.”

Stone Lawless on what adjustments need to be made next year…

“I think it starts with me, Levi, and some other older guys coming back that we got to set the tone, right? What is the standard? I think we could’ve done a better job than that early on in the year. Kind of let some things slide we shouldn’t have, just in terms of the way we play and the way we go about things. I think it’s easy, we can point fingers and say this and that and that, but at the end of the day, your older guys got to be the leaders, and I think we need to do a better job of leading everyone, whether that’s talking to the coaches, or talking to the freshmen, or talking to the third-year vets. Like, there’s got to be a standard set across from the top to the bottom.”

Reese Chapman on what gives him confidence that Tennessee will continue the success it had in his four years in the program…

“The guy to my right (Josh Elander). I mean, he wants to win just as bad as we want to win. I mean, I have full faith in this program. It’s gonna be right back at the top. So I mean, that’s all Vol Nation needs to hear is that we have this guy in our corner.”