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Vols pitcher AJ Russell dealing with ‘general soreness’ following Albany start

On3 imageby:Eric Cain•02/23/24•

_Cainer

AJ-Russell
Credit: UT Athletic Communications

It looked as if Tennessee starting pitcher AJ Russell was cruising through the first three innings of UT’s 8-5 win over Albany Friday night, but the sophomore did not return to the mound for the fourth inning in what is being described as ‘general soreness.’

“Just some soreness and we’ve kind of been harping to our players to communicate with us with what’s going on. It could be anything. You turn an ankle and it’s sore. You got a blister.

“He had some soreness in a certain part of his body. I don’t know if it was necessarily (his) arm. I kind of leave that up to those guys. Maybe it’s my mechanism. I don’t have any control of it, so I don’t want to stress until we’ve got the full word, but we got enough word to take him out of the game and give the ball off to (Chris Stamos) there.”

Stamos went on to earn the victory after pitching three innings where he gave up two runs off just one hit (home run) with one strikeout and two walks. Russell’s final line read no runs off three hits with four strikeouts to one walk in three innings of work. The sophomore tapped out at 54 pitches while Stamos went on to throw 51.

“He’s a guy who’s fortunately put on some weight and added to his physique a lot,” Vitello continued on Russell. “He has kind of made adjustments — I’m going over the course of his whole career — made some adjustments throwing-program wise, so he’s certainly put in all of his work. I think he’s dealt with a blister or something with finger before, but nothing that kind of attaches itself to this. We’ll await word.”

Russell pitched extremely well last Friday against No. 21 Texas Tech in the season-debut. 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.

“I felt really good tonight. I think warmups and all that was good but it was a little rushed. I didn’t realize after the national anthem I would be pitching right away,” Russell said following the start last week against the Red Raiders. “I thought it went well. I think the biggest difference is overall strength and comfortability out there. It’s a little less nerve racking each time I get out there. I think that’s helped a lot.”

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 dog SEC play.

Russell’s next scheduled start is Friday, March 1 against Bowling Green.

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