Garrett Wright made his Tennessee debut Wednesday afternoon and quickly showed why his objective is to get on base by any means necessary.
Wright went 2-for-3 at the plate as the No. 19 Volunteers walloped Oakland 11-2 inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium, but he reached base four times. The 6-foot, 195-pound junior center fielder, who spent his first two seasons at Bowling Green, was also hit by two pitches.
His two hit by pitches were the 50th and 51st of his career.
“I just don’t move,” Wright said afterward in a press conference. “It’s a warrior mentality, and I just go from there. I really think I’m in an average stance.
“I don’t move if it’s coming at me. I’m just going to wear it.”
The Vols improved to 10-3 with their fourth consecutive victory and resume play when they host Wright State (4-6) at 6:30 p.m. Friday to open a three-game series.
Wright, who is from Massillon, Ohio, has practiced getting plunked by pitching machines and set a Bowling Green record as a freshman by getting hit 21 times. He broke that record last season with 28, with Tennessee’s single-season standard of 25 having been set in 1995 by Scott Vieira.
“He’s a different kind of throwback player,” Tennessee first-year coach Josh Elander said. “There is some grittiness there that I like that he adds to the lineup. He takes pride in his hit by pitches.
“We were talking about that, and he was like, ‘I don’t wear an EvoShield (elbow protector).’ We were all laughing because it kind of scared us the way he said it.”
Redshirt sophomore Blake Grimmer made his season debut Wednesday, playing first base and left field and going 3-for-4 at the plate against the Golden Grizzlies (1-11). Both Grimmer and Wright had been held out due to injuries.
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Tennessee scored three runs in the first inning, which began with singles to center field by Jay Abernathy and Henry Ford. Reese Chapman reached on a fielding error that brought in Abernathy, and Grimmer’s double to left-center scored Ford and Chapman to make it 3-0.
Chapman and Trent Grindlinger had RBI singles to highlight Tennessee’s three-run third inning, and Blaine Brown’s two-run homer to right in the fourth extended the advantage to 8-0.
Taylor Tracey started on the mound for the Vols and retired all nine batters he faced, including seven by strikeout. Jax Bishop, a freshman from Baylor School, made his debut in the sixth inning and retired three of the four he faced, allowing Kyle Revere’s homer that made it 8-1.
“The biggest thing with the entire pitching staff was no walks,” Elander said. “We made that a big theme, and I think it was good for our offense to get out of the gates to give our guys some breathing room. Taylor threw a lot of strikes.
“He’s left-handed throwing 92 or 93 with a pretty good changeup, so that’s a pretty good place to start.”
Brown dispute
D1 Baseball reported Wednesday that Brown is involved in a legal dispute with South Main Collective, the NIL collective that supports Rice University.
The dispute will not affect Brown’s eligibility with the Vols.
Brown led Rice in batting last spring with a .292 average before entering the NCAA transfer portal in June and quickly transferring to Tennessee. He went 2-for-3 Wednesday to improve his average to .352 for the season.
According to documents obtained by D1 Baseball, the 6-5, 200-pounder from Houston agreed to an NIL deal that paid him $20,000 last season with the ability to make upwards of $256,000 the next two seasons. Brown was the shining star on an Owls team that struggled to a 17-40 record, with the school parting ways with coach Jose Cruz Jr. following a 2-14 start.
The central issue of the dispute is that Brown signed away exclusive rights to his name, image and likeness in exchange for a monthly payment schedule that ran through June 2027. The South Main Collective is arguing that Brown could therefore not lend his name or likeness to sponsor another school, such as Tennessee, and thus broke the agreement.
D1 Baseball reported after reviewing the documents that Brown not only received $20,000 but an additional $9,250 in advance payments for tuition. The dispute is now in the hands of the American Arbitration Association in Houston.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.