Tennessee head coach Josh Elander set to move off third base

Tennessee baseball head coach Josh Elander is no longer coaching third base for the Vols on offense this season, a source told Volquest on Tuesday.

Elander has served as Tennessee’s third base coach on offense throughout his entire tenure on Rocky Top, dating back to the 2018 season when Tony Vitello first arrived in Knoxville.

UT welcomes Austin Peay Tuesday evening for a 6 p.m. ET midweek bout that will be streamed on the SEC Network+.

In Tuesday’s game, assistant coach Ross Kivett will coach third base while Ricky Martinez will coach first base when the Vols are on offense. Elander will be calling the offense from the dugout. Craig Bell, who coached third base at Florida for nearly a decade, will be the third base coach moving forward but is sick and not present for Tuesday’s game.

Moving forward, it will be Bell coaching third base and Kivett coaching fist base.

Since being named skipper for Tennessee baseball, Elander has reaffirmed several times his intentions of remaining the third base coach for the 2026 season.

“In conversations I’ve had with recruits, I’ve been very adamant that I’m still planning on coaching third base,” Elander said at his introductory press conference in October. “Being in the cage, grinding with the guys on the hitting side, whether it be prep with (Zach) Stovall and Ross (Kivett) and Ricky (Martinez) and how we go about this deal. Just told these guys, hey, anything big picture, let’s just finish this fall at a high level.”

Elander has since said in interviews that he would remain in that role for this season, trying to keep as much consistency as possible amid the late offseason shakeup, but that has since changed his stance.

Tennessee was swept last weekend at Vanderbilt on three consecutive walk off hits. The Vols blew a five-run ninth inning in the series finale to lose on a walk off grand slam by the Commodores.  

The Vols have dropped two of three Southeastern Conference series thus far this season and sit with a 3-6 record in conference. LSU, the defending national champions, will be at Lindsey Nelson Stadium this weekend to begin a three-game series.