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What Tony Vitello said on the AJ Russell injury from Saturday

On3 imageby:Eric Cain•03/23/24•

_Cainer

AJ Russell
Credit: UT Athletic Communications

Tennessee right-handed pitcher AJ Russell left Saturday’s 8-5 loss to Ole Miss in the top of the ninth inning with some forearm tightness, according to coach Tony Vitello in postgame.

“Had some tightness in his forearm,” the coach said. “He felt that soreness in there. I think he was wanting to warmup or kind of see how it felt, but we aren’t going to mess with that at any point in that situation.”

The sophomore came into the ballgame with one away in the top of the sixth inning with two men on base. He allowed an unearned run to score in the frame but went on to retire eight of his next nine entering the ninth inning. Russell allowed the game-tying double in the ninth and walked three before exiting with the injury.

Aaron Combs entered in his place and allowed a two-run single and an RBI groundout that inflated the Rebels lead to three runs at 8-5.

“We were kind of at the end of the deal with how we wanted to use him, but either a credit to them or maybe being off a little bit command wise and pitch count climbing pretty quick in the amount of time that he was out there,” Vitello continued. “I mean, he did record three innings worth of outs for us. He did a good job. He kept us in the game but unfortunately, I think gave up one of several 0-2 hits that were painful.”

Russell made his return to the mound last week in game three at Alabama after missing his previous three starts with general soreness as he was removed from his February 23 start against Albany after three scoreless innings of 54 pitches. The righty pitched extremely well in the season-opener against No. 21 Texas Tech at Globe Life Field and it was also the first weekend start of his career as well. The right-handed hurler went on to strike out 10 batters over 4.1 innings pitched where he allowed two runs off three hits. 

Tennessee and Ole Miss will conclude the three-game series on Sunday at 1 pm ET.

Entering the 2024 campaign, the sophomore was named a preseason All-American by the NCBWA. After last season’s true freshman campaign, he was named a third-team All-American by the same publication. The right-handed relief pitcher from Franklin, Tenn., lead all Tennessee pitchers (minimum 25 innings pitched) with a 0.89 ERA, a 0.53 WHIP and a .095 opponent batting average in 2023. He was 2-0 this season and had 47 strikeouts against seven walks in 30.1 innings pitched.

He appeared in 24 games last season and allowed only one run on five hits in 10 innings of SEC play.

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