Tennessee senior Zander Sechrist’s gem was therapeutic for all in orange
The Tennessee baseball team is exactly where they are supposed to be — heading to Omaha. The Vols are heading back to baseball’s promise land for the third time in four years by turning Sunday night’s elimination game in the Knoxville Super Regional into a coronation and farewell party as they beat Evansville 12-1, giving guys like super senior Kirby Connell a curtain call in the ninth.
I understand head coach Tony Vitello’s post game stance on defining what measure success. A loss would not have meant the season was a failure. However, the reality is that Sunday night was an elimination game where had the Vols failed, they would have been the butt of jokes for many. But the Vols had no part in being baseball’s version of Virginia losing to a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
And Zander Sechrist made sure of that.
Baseball is a funny, quirky game whose results create great stories and Sechrist is one of them.
Flowery Branch, Georgia – most known for being the training home of the Atlanta Falcons – but for Vol fans, it’s home to Pittsburgh Steeler fan Zander Sechrist, the best Vol pitcher over the last month. The guy who became a left hander because he broke his right arm at the age of two and the guy Vitello completely believes in.
“I will win or lose with that guy anytime on the field or off the field,” Vitello said.
In his last four starts, Sechrist has three wins and a no-decision in what was a Volunteer win. Pretty good for a senior who didn’t get his first career SEC start until the Ole Miss game in mid-March.
Sechrist’s 4-1 win against South Carolina clinched the Vols as the regular season SEC title. His 6-4 win against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament sent the Vols to the championship game. Sechrist didn’t get a decision in UT’s 12-3 region clinching win over Southern Miss, but pitched well. And then of course Saturday night, with everything on the line, Sechrist delivered a gem in the Vols 12-1 victory
Sechrist’s line in those four outings? 23 innings pitched, two earned runs, 18 hits (1 HR, 1 2B, and 16 singles), 18 strikeouts and four walks.
And Sunday night, he was a rock. A rock in the first when an error gave Evansville an 1-0 lead on an unearned run. Cool as a cucumber in the fourth when the Purple Aces had the bases juiced with one out following a Christian Moore dropped ball on what would have been a forced out at second.
Sechrist never got rattled as he hasn’t in his last four outings. The same can’t be said for his previous four outings where he only went 11 total innings giving up 10 earned runs, including four long balls.
What changed? Essentially nothing. A tweak here. A tweak there. But ultimately it’s simply baseball.
“Just honestly just building off and getting momentum from last outings. Obviously going back to Vanderbilt and Florida, not being able to get out of the second or third and just assessing and making adjustments on pitches,” Sechrist said. “And I’ve noticed that I’m not cutting the ball as much. I’m throwing with more conviction as Coach V likes to say it. But just overall, just looking back at different outings like body language presence. So just putting multiple outings together”
Sunday, given the circumstances, Sechrist had his best outing in his final game of catch in his home, which is why he had one demand for his head coach before exiting stage left. He wanted his moment.
“He made me put him back out there (to start the seventh),” Vitello said. “Then I’m not so sure he didn’t make me take him out with his hand gestures or whatever non-verbals we had going on. Sometimes it’s more comfortable to give a guy a clean start to the inning but he demanded to be out there on that field. Step one is saying it. Step two is doing it. He went out there and got the job done to put himself in a position to do what he wanted to do. He wanted to walk off the field. This is his home. There’s been good times. There’s been bad times, but it’s always fun times with Zander around. This is his home and this is how he wanted to do it. He’s earned the right to do a lot and ask for a lot and have it given to him.”
Sunday night, his teammates and his coaches asked a lot of him. The fans wished for a lot out of him and the veteran over delivered. Sechrist gave his teammates the performance needed to punch a ticket to college baseball’s promise land — Omaha and he gave the Big Orange faithful an outing to remember.
A fitting ending inside Lindsey Nelson Stadium for the guy who’s majoring in therapeutic recreation.
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