By Nick Rose
An entire stadium on its feet. Anticipation – was this another early-season blunder for the Volunteers?
An entire Lindsey Nelson holding out hope for a heroic moment, and they got one.
On the second pitch he saw all night, Manny Marin pulled back his bunt and swung. He drove a ball back up the baron middle-infield, scoring the leadoff hitter, Garrett Wright. The team came racing out of the dugout to swarm him.
“It was awesome, man,” Marin said. “This team’s great. Coach (Elander) is great. It was a good feeling.”
No. 19 Tennessee fought hard to claw its way to a 4-3 victory and needed the heroics of Marin to do it. The winning run, Garrett Wright, was a major factor in this one reaching base three times tonight. The bullpen also helped out the offense with three great innings of relief from Brandon Arvidson and one fantastic inning from Brady Frederick, who was tagged with the win.
Wright State strikes first
Wright State 2-hole hitter Andrew Duncan got the hit parade started with a single for the Raiders as they got to starter Teagan Kuhns early. Hunter Warren, the next batter, brought him in on an RBI double. The duo combined for half of Wright State’s hits on the next.
The duo tagged Kuhns again in the third inning as Duncan recorded another single, which he then followed up with a stolen base. Warren was able to bring him home with an RBI single to left field, which extended their lead to two.
Tennessee’s stale offense heats up
After managing just one run through five innings, an RBI single from Henry Ford that scored Wright, the Vols’ offense got jump-started by a Blake Grimmer solo home run that squeaked over the short right field wall. The next inning, after a Jay Abernathy walk, another Ford RBI single brought the Vols within one.
“That was clearly reckless by me,” Tennessee head coach Josh Elander said. “Jay bailed me out. He can change the game with his speed.”
“Anything in the gap I was scoring on,” Abernathy said. “(Elander) looked at me, and he was like (motions hurry up with his hands), so I was like, I got you.”
Tennessee bullpen shoves
The Vols wouldn’t have been able to secure the win without the exceptional work of the bullpen. Starter Kuhns was pulled after a shaky five innings that resulted in eight hits and three runs for the Raiders. Arvidson replaced him in the top of the sixth and shoved. The big lefty totaled three innings of work with five Ks and only allowed two hits and one walk.
“I’m just happy that I’m healthy and just trusting my arm and just letting it work,” Arvidson said.
The junior submarine pitcher Frederick came out in the ninth to shut the game down late. And shut it down he did, as he struck out two of the three batters he faced and forced a groundout on the other.
“He’s just a dog. He’s done it before. That’s why he was the SOCON pitcher of the year last year,” Arvidson said. “I mean, he’s super experienced, and he just pitches with a lot of authority.”
Looking ahead
The Volunteers look to capture a series win tomorrow at 3 p.m., a time recently announced after the forecast called for poor weather later in the evening. A series win would carry forward momentum for Tennessee heading into conference play, which starts next week on the road at Georgia.