What Christian Moore said about breaking the Tennessee home run record
Tennessee second baseman Christian Moore homered not once, not twice but three times in a win over No. 3 Kentucky on the road Sunday – passing teammate Blake Burke for the program record for career homers. Following the hat trick, Moore now has 46 home runs for his career.
Moore’s first home run of the day, a two-run blast in the third inning, put the Vols on the scoreboard first. His second homer tied the ballgame at 8-8 in the seventh before his third (3-run HR) gave Tennessee some additional insurance run late in the ballgame – runs they ended up needing.
The record-breaking blast was his second of the day came in the top of the seventh inning and tied the ballgame at 8-8 at the time. It traveled 399 feet and was 106 miles per hour off the bat. The second home run of the day was Moore’s 19th of the season and he’s now within striking distance of chasing down the single-season home run record as well. That record is currently held by Sonny Cortez, who blasted 24 home runs for Tennessee back in 1998.
Here’s what Christian Moore sad about his performance and breaking the record in postgame interviews.
Christian Moore Interview Transcript
On when is the last time he had a three homer game…
“Honestly, I was thinking about that, maybe little league? I don’t know. I know I didn’t do it in high school, so probably little league.”
On leading the HR record chase with Blake Burke…
“It’s pretty cool. I think Burke’s going to catch me, and we’re going to go back-and-forth the whole season, and that’ll be pretty cool. But for right now, I’m the champion, and I’ll try to ride with it as long as I can.”
On how cool it feels to have the sole lead for the HR record after Burke took the lead back on Saturday…
“I thought he was going to do it today (take the lead back). I might make fun of him for it a little bit today and tomorrow.”
On what’s been working for him at the plate…
“Trying to stay humble and even-keeled. Staying with my work that I do every day and try not to change as much, and just try to see good pitches up there. On defense, do the same thing. Keep the ball in front and make plays.”
On what he learned about the team this weekend…
“That we will never ever give up against a team. On the road, at home, doesn’t matter. Obviously, they punched us in the mouth early in the game, we came back, they punched back, it was back-and-forth. To beat this team… they’re really, really good. They might not have all the glamor and all that stuff, but they play hard-nosed baseball, and it definitely was a great game today.”
On what was said amongst the team post-game…
“Just the boys being boys, that’s all. That’s all we’ll say.”
On how encouraging it was to have multiple guys contribute in a big game…
“This team has the amount of depth that… however much depth we want, we can have. We have guys on guys coming from different programs, guys who have been here, guys who have grinded their tails off to be in this position. So, for guys like Peebs (Cannon Peebles) to come off the bench and get a sac fly, a walk and a score is huge for us. And he’s someone that obviously was highly recruited, came here and has been struggling as of late. But, he had two great ABs today that helped us win the game. So that’s definitely huge.”
On Kirby Connell and Marcus Phillips’ performances…
“Kirby [Connell] being Kirby. For the last five years he’s been here – I’ve been with him for three – he does that all the time. He’ll give you one batter, he’ll give you six, give you four innings, doesn’t matter. And Marcus [Phillips] coming in and closing the door was definitely good. Can definitely put him in different situations now for sure. He started for us last week and came in and closed it today. Definitely gives Coach V (Tony Vitello) a lot of options.”
On if he was looking for a specific pitch in the ABs he hit a HR…
“Yes and no. I knew on one of them, I was up in the count. Just trying to get a heater. On one, [CAN’T UNDERSTAND AUDIO]… Didn’t know what they were trying to do to me. I knew one guy was a really big slider guy, and I knew I was going to get it because that’s what they wanted to throw to me, and he kind of just left it over the middle.”
On how big Marcus Phillips’ performance was for him moving forward…
“You see the guy. He throws 97 (mph) like he’s not even trying. A lot of it is just him having that confidence and being that guy. And that comes. That comes with repetition and being out there and understanding that. He’s definitely the guy that… if I was him, I would go out there and try to throw 102 (mph) with that body type. But, we’re not all the same.”
On how great it was to see Kavares Tears hit a big home run…
“KT (Kavares Tears) is one of – if not [the best] – one of our best hitters. Might be our best hitter. Just purely. He doesn’t swing at balls and makes a lot of hard contact. For that to happen, I mean to me, it didn’t feel like he was struggling. This was a really good pitching team, and they called a really good game. He just had some tough breaks, and right there, he let it loose. Had a really good at-bat again. Eight-pitch at-bat then hit a homer. It was super huge for us. You know, leaning on their starter and then giving that – I think it was the go-ahead or tying [homer] – but super huge for us. We just want to add runs on Sunday, and that’s what he did.”
