In Game 3 of the Super Regional against Evansville, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello turned to Zander Sechrist in a must-win game for the Volunteers.
Sechrist took care of business for Tennessee and the Volunteers won to move on to Omaha and the College World Series. It was in the wake of that win that Sechrist explained why he was so successful in the key spot.
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“Honestly, just building off and getting momentum from [the] last outings,” Zander Sechrist said. “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 honestly.”
The two games that Sechrist referenced against Vanderbilt and Florida came back in early May. He pitched a total of four innings and gave up five earned runs in those outings. However, since then, he’s pitched 23 innings in four appearances. During that stretch, he’s only given up two runs.
In many ways, as Sechrist explained, it was making changes in that stretch that led to his excellent Super Regional outing.
“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. Overall, just looking back at different outings like body language presence. Putting multiple outings together and comparing them.”
In the win over Evansville, Zander Sechrist pitched six and one-third innings. He only gave up one, unearned run on six hits. He also struck out six in the win.
This season, Zander Sechrist has a 3.26 ERA on 18 appearances, 17 of which he started. In total, he’s thrown 66.1 innings, the most of any season in his college career. He’s struck out 66 batters while allowing 65 hits and walking 14 batters.
Tony Vitello on Zander Sechrist going out for the seventh inning
After the win, Tony Vitello admitted Zander Sechrist insisted on going out for the seventh inning. It was a situation that Vitello did his best to explain.
“You have to ask him that. He made me put him back out there. And 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. What you don’t want is a mess to start or, sometimes it could be more comfortable to give a guy a clean start to his inning, but he demanded to be out there on that field. Step one saying it, step two is doing it. So he went out there and got the job done and put himself in a position where he could do what he wanted to do. He wanted to walk off the field. This is his home,” Vitello said.
“And again, it’s like that for every kid wherever they’re at, but he did take a long time in recruiting, and he chose this to be his home and there’s been good times, there’s been bad times, but it’s always fun times when Zander is around. And this is his home. So that’s the way he wanted to do it. Again, kind of like my Cal [Stark] example, he’s earned the right to do a lot and ask for a lot and be given to him. And fortunately, the run differential made it a little easier.”
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