Tag: AJ Russell

AJ Russell made his sixth pitching appearance for Tennessee on May 26 in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game. He has experienced arm soreness during the 2024 season.

After defeating Northern Kentucky on Friday, seventh-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello discussed Russell’s availability for the NCAA Tournament Knoxville Regional.

“No, he’s not active and probably will get looked at again,” Vitello said. “We haven’t fast-forwarded there, but just off playing catch, there’s no need to battle the soreness factor, step one, and step two would be to make sure he’s good to go and should be throwing at all.

“What he did for us on Sunday was great. I think it was obvious, though, with his couple outings he did give us, that he hadn’t really been what his best version of himself is since Texas Tech. If anything, I think it alleviates the cloud, for these guys, too. Not just him, but also us, what is, what isn’t. At least we are on one side of the fence than the other. Everyone knows we’d rather be fully on the other, but at least there’s some clarity there, so he won’t be active. He’s going to get looked at, and we’ll figure that out.”

Sophomore pitcher AJ Russell (0-1) made his fourth start of the season for Tennessee (50-11) on May 26 in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Russell pitched one inning in the Vols’ win against LSU in the SEC Tournament championship game. He totaled 13 pitches, including 10 strikes, against four batters.

Before making two appearances in the SEC Tournament, the 6-foot-6, 207-pound sophomore appeared in four games during the regular-season due to soreness.

Ahead of the Knoxville Regional, seventh-year Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello met with media and discussed Russell’s availability.

“He’s been eager to compete, which obviously he’s done sparingly,” Vitello said. “We’ve tried to kind of meet him in the middle, what’s the best thing to do, but he’s been sore. To this point, we’ve probably pressed it as good as we can.

“If it was a normal weekend, he wouldn’t have pitched, but as we make it to the fifth game of the week and he had some time to bounce back. He wanted the ball and was not going to go more than an inning, so I think if he is available and he does throw, same thing.”