Tennessee assistant coach Josh Elander has been with Tony Vitello on Rocky Top for all five seasons of the Vitello era.

Elander's first ever recruiting trip as a coach for the Vols was to go see current redshirt-sophomore infielder Jorel Ortega, who hails from Naranjito, Puerto Rico, but was a standout shortstop at Spanish River High School in Lake Worth, Florida.

Ortega was rated by Perfect Game as the No. 366 overall player in the country and the 11th-best shortstop in the state of Florida. As a three-time Perfect Game Preseason All-American, the Vols were thrilled when they received Ortega's commitment.

It didn't start off smoothly for Ortega at Tennessee though.

Before Ortega enrolled, he was playing in a prestigious high school tournament in New Mexico where he injured his UCL and had to have Tommy John surgery. The injury proved to cost Ortega his true freshman season.

Then, during his redshirt-freshman season, he had to sit behind the likes of Max Ferguson, Liam Spence and Jake Rucker despite being the team's best hitter throughout the fall.

This season finally presented Ortega with an opportunity and he's made the most of it.

"Just a ton of hard work from him," Vols assistant Josh Elander said following No. 1 Tennessee's 15-4 win over No. 24 Alabama on Sunday. "He's such a good kid, and he can really hit.

"(His injury is) a tough thing to overcome, but he did a really good job of staying the course, being a good teammate, and he deserves all the success he's getting now.”

Ortega was a big part of the Vols' win over Alabama on Sunday in the series finale.

He hit a key three-run home run with two outs in the fourth to extend the lead to five. It was just one of four hits on his way to finishing 4-for-5 at the plate with four RBIs.

'He just seemed like he was in a good position to hit the whole time," Elander said of Ortega. "He hit heaters, changeups, breaking balls, and he's really confident with two strikes.

“He was just kind of locked in. That's what my favorite part about our offense is — at any point, any guy can get you, one to nine. So, you know Joey (Ortega) and Trey (Lipscomb) were the guys today. A good day for him.”

Tennessee's offense scored 15 runs on 15 hits Sunday to clinch a series win over Alabama. It was part of the Vols outscoring the Tide 24-6 over the final two games of the series after dropping game one 6-3 on Friday.

Ortega contributed to eight of the 24 runs on Saturday and Sunday to help the Vols comeback and win the series. For the weekend, he was 8-for-12 with a homer, five RBIs and three runs scored, all while playing stellar defense in the field.

“Just staying longer to the ball," Ortega said of his success. "Not trying to spin off it. Just try to keep it simple. Hitting is already hard enough. We have guys throwing 104 (mph) so just trying to keep it simple.”

On the season, Ortega is now hitting .328 while compiling the third-most at-bats (116) on the team. He's also tallied the third-most hits (38) on the team while starting 32 of 36 games.

"Just trust the process," Ortega said of everything he's had to overcome to become one of Tennessee's most reliable players. "My surgery when I first got here was a setback, but the comeback is even better. Just kept on working and it's paying off."

Ortega and the Vols will be back in action on Tuesday when it hosts Bellarmine in a midweek game. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. ET.