Simcox talks Tennessee and baseball community

Former UT assistant helped bring many of these players to Rocky Top
Former and longtime UT assistant talks Tennessee and baseball community
Published: Jun. 17, 2021 at 11:37 AM EDT|Updated: Jun. 17, 2021 at 11:38 AM EDT
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Vol Nation can really get used to the Big Orange. This is Tennessee’s 5th trip to Omaha.Larry Simcox, a former Tennessee assistant under Rod Delmonico and Dave Serrano, went there to three of them with the team back in 1995,2001 and 2005.

What’s neat is he’s got a connection to a lot of the guys that are playing out in Omaha this year, “Coach Serrano and myself, we recruited a lot of those guys. It’s hard to believe it’s been four years ago, but with the pandemic, guys get an extra year. I think five of the guys in the starting lineup there are guys that we recruited and I think five of the top seven pitchers they are using on our guys that we recruited and so you know we’re proud of that. I’m glad to see those guys have success and I think that means we’re bringing the right guys in.”

There’s been a lot of excitement for UT baseball this post season and maybe no more exciting moment than when Drew Gilbert hit that towering home run,the grand slam to beat Wright State. Since then Tennessee has been on the fast track to Omaha. Simcox says that was a big moment, but back in the day when he was coaching, there was no such thing as social media, but now people can just look on their phones, they’ll see that home run, and what the Big Orange is doing and he says it’s making a lot of difference, “10 years from now, there’s going to be 50,000 people say they’re in the game when Drew hit the walk-off slam even though there was only about 43-hundred in there so I think that’s been a big part of the baseball community because there’s so much out there to see. Also I think the timing of Tennessee fans looking for somebody to throw their hat on, and this is a fun team to watch. Tony’s done a great job and he’s got that personality that the fans like and you can tell the kids enjoyed playing for him.”

The friendly confines of Lindsey Nelson stadium have been good to theVols here in the postseason and now it’s off to TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, a bit of a bigger Park. Remember the balls have been flying out at Lindsey Nelson, six home runs alone in the final game against LSU. We’ll see how the Vol batters adjust when they begin the World Series Sunday at 2pm on ESPN Virginia

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