By Anna Reiffer
The Vols drop their first loss of the Josh Elander era, heartbreakingly in their second game of their series against the Kent State Golden Flashes.
Despite a dominant showing from the pitching staff, their inability to execute with runners on base was their achilles heal, and ultimately what cost them the game.
The defeat marks the first setback under head coach Elander, a moment that felt inevitable at some point in a long season, but still stung given the way it unfolded. Tennessee had positioned itself to stay unbeaten, yet small mistakes in key moments proved costly.
“I think you find out a lot about your team after the first loss,” said head coach Elander during his postgame press conference.
Elander emphasized that adversity early in the season can serve as a measuring stick, revealing both weaknesses and areas for growth as conference play inches closer.
Pitchers excel on the mound
Landon Mack shone in his second outing of the season, only allowing one earned run and posting a career-high 11 strikeouts in 6.2 innings of work.
“That was the one great thing of the night,” Elander said. “Him and [Brandon Arvidson] really threw the baseball well. It gives us a lot of confidence.”
Even when Elander made the decision to swap Mack for Arvidson, pitching provided the offense with chance after chance.
Each scoreless frame kept the deficit manageable and allowed the Vols to remain within striking distance late into the contest.
In his season debut, following an offseason that was spent recovering from injury, Arvidson pitched just 2.2 innings, but continued what Mack started. He added five of his own strikeouts, bringing the total to 16 while only allowing two hits.
“We’ll play it safe with him,” Elander said. “The stuff continues to get better, and he’s a guy we are very confident in.”
Offensive inability and defensive errors killed the momentum
Despite a promising start with Henry Ford’s homerun in the first at-bat of the game, the Vols quickly fell apart on offense.
A baserunning error in the second by Jay Abernathy led him to find himself caught in a chase between third and home.
The struggles continued in subsequent innings, with the Vols unable to score on repeated opportunities. They went an immensely frustrating 0-for-15 with runners on base and 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
“I think a little bit of guys just trying to do too much…didn’t execute at all up to our standards,” Elander said.
Throughout the press conference, Elander acknowledged that coming into the series, the Vols knew they had a challenge with Kent State’s ambitious offense. The Golden Flashes were coming off of a series against No. 2 LSU the previous week, where they scored seven runs on Feb. 16.
Adding to the offensive struggles, the Vols committed three fielding errors, the most of the season thus far.
The Vols look to bounce back
The Vols will finish out their series against the Kent State Golden Flashes on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 1 p.m. at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
The game will be available to stream on SEC Network+.