Blake Grimmer and Garrett Wright were the headliners for Tennessee baseball on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
But the pair of offseason winners were just a minuscule fraction of the prizes in the Vols\u2019 11-2 win over Oakland at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. Tennessee (10-3) tossed a first-time starter on the mound, had two players make their first-career appearances, one make a first start in the field, another make a season debut and the last hit their first-career home run.<\/p>\n
Those include Taylor Tracey, Will Haas, Jax Bishop, Wright, Grimmer and Ariel Antigua. Tennessee needed each of its contributions in the back-half of a double midweek against the Grizzlies (1-11).<\/p>\n
\u201cToday was a really cool day to be able to get everybody in the mix, and everybody doing their job,\u201d head coach Josh Elander said.<\/p>\n
First-career start for Tracey<\/p>\n
Blaine Brown is not the only two-way guy Tennessee baseball has on its roster. When Elander filled out the lineup card, he summoned 6-foot-6, 195-pound lefty Tracey on the bump and in the nine hole.<\/p>\n
That move was rewarding for the Vols, who received three innings of perfect baseball from the true freshman. He retired all nine batters he faced in order, striking out seven of them, on 43 pitches.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good place to start, but I mean, it was originally going to go two,\u201d Elander said. \u201cBut, again, I liked what I saw. I wanted to see if he could get one more. So it\u2019s a good sign going to next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
First starts for Grimmer, Wright<\/p>\n
In the field, Tennessee baseball has been awaiting prized offseason addition Wright and two-year shadower Grimmer take shape as everyday guys in the lineup.<\/p>\n
Wednesday was the first step in the right direction, as the two were penciled into the lineup for the first time this season. Grimmer manned the five spot in the card, while Wright took the sixth.<\/p>\n
Grimmer, a 6-foot-3, 208-pound lefty, produced a 3-for-4 night with two doubles. He started off strong, lacing a two-RBI double off the wall in left-center in his first at-bat, though that was not Elander\u2019s favorite of his.<\/p>\n
Instead, it was his second double in the fourth inning, where he stayed on top of the ball and poked it down the opposite left-field line.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I do that in practice, (Elander) lets me know that he really likes that swing,\u201d Grimmer said. \u201cThough that\u2019s what I\u2019m really trying to do every time I come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright, on the other hand, followed with his warrior mentality. The 6-foot, 195-pound competitor reached base four times in three at-bats. He drew two hit-by-pitches, dropped a successful bunt single and laced a single to left field for a near-perfect .800 on-base percentage.<\/p>\n
In his first at-bat since a hamate bone injury withheld him from action, Wright took the 1-2 offering off the body.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I bring) the ability to get on base, and the warrior mentality of nothing\u2019s going to stop me,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
First home run for Antigua<\/p>\n
Elander has consistently praised Antigua as one of the best hitters of the offseason \u2014 but he hasn\u2019t quite had things go his way with four hits in 21 at-bats this season.<\/p>\n
When Antigua stepped to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the seventh inning, though, it all went his way. Antigua launched the 2-2 offering to the porches in left field for a no-doubter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always hit, right?\u201d Elander said.\u2029\u201dSo we just want to go out and play, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a step in the right direction for him, but just handling it the right way of coming to the field, make sure he\u2019s getting his work in. And I tell him, be patient, but stay ready, because the ebbs and flows of the season and how guys do.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Antigua\u2019s first long ball in 143 collegiate plate appearances.<\/p>\n
First mound appearances for Haas, Bishop<\/p>\n
Tennessee also had the dice roll its way for a pair of freshman pitchers to make their debuts.<\/p>\n
Bishop, a freshman from Baylor School in Chattanooga, emerged in the sixth inning. He dished up a home-run pitch to Oakland, but earned a strikeout, lineout and groundout to keep the line otherwise clean.<\/p>\n
Haas, the No. 197 prospect in the 2025 class, had an elbow procedure done more than eight months ago that withheld him from competition. He entered for the first time on Wednesday, dishing out one inning of work \u2014 allowing a home run, but bouncing back with two strikeouts and a flyout in the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Hey, like, I know you guys gave up homers, I cannot care less,\u2019\u201d Elander said. \u201cYou attacked the strike zone, you\u2019re right back in it right after that. You got good defenders behind you. So, credit to a lot of people for getting those guys back out there, and I think they\u2019ll continue to build as we get that pitch count up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tennessee baseball is back in action with the final weekend series before SEC play begins. The Vols host Wright State beginning Friday, March 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blake Grimmer and Garrett Wright were the headliners for Tennessee baseball on Wednesday. But the pair of offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-204820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}