On a brisk, windy day in Nashville, the Commodores won 4-3 thrillingly with 9th-inning heroics over Gonzaga. The pitching did its part, but the offensive approach was questionable at times as Vandy left nine runners on base. Despite the overall hitting woes, Vandy pulled through in the ninth inning courtesy of a walk-off single from freshman Cam Kozeal. Before that, Jack Bulger ripped an RBI single to tie the game, allowing Jacob Humphrey to pinch run. After an errant pickoff move went into shallow right field, Humphrey advanced to third base to make way for Kozeal’s walk-off.
After the game, Tim Corbin credited the approach at the plate and dynamic base-running from UMass Lowell transfer Jacob Humphrey.
“Vasty did a good job of driving the ball back up the middle again. Jack did a nice job of hitting the ball up the middle. Being able to put a kid like Humphrey in, who can take advantage of the potential of stealing a base or a ball in the dirt, or in that case, just taking two bases on one play. That was a large part of that inning.”
Meanwhile, freshman Cam Kozeal was excited to earn his first walk-off hit of his young Vanderbilt career.
“It was cool, I just battled there with two strikes, attacking fastballs. I saw RJ Austin go down, but we’ve got to pick our teammates up and that’s something we did well today.”
Here are four takeaways from today’s game:
- Bryce Cunningham’s tough outing
The junior out of Alabama didn’t pitch terribly, but his walks turned into base runners and those base runners turned into runs. On top of that, Alan Espinal didn’t help him out much behind the plate. There were a couple of key drops from Espinal that resulted in runners advancing, which was unusual for the 5th-year senior. Either way, Cunningham struggled with control, finishing with four walks in three innings of work. Despite the control issues, he still finished with seven strikeouts, so overall, it wasn’t the worst day for Cunningham. His fastball topped out at 96 and used it quite frequently, although his offspeed appeared solid as well. He was also at 75 pitches, which resulted in Tim Corbin passing the torch over to freshman Ethan McElvain in the fourth.
- Ethan McElvain bounces back from Dayton disaster
The freshman out of Nolensville, TN responded in a big way after a tough outing on Tuesday night vs. Dayton. His fastball topped out at 96 and his curveball consistently kept hitters off-track. His out pitch was the fastball. He was able to elevate and force hitters to make a split-second decision on a 95-mph fastball at their eyes. The talented southpaw pitched three scoreless innings, finishing with six strikeouts and only two walks.
After Tuesday night’s rough outing, the freshman spent time with pitching coach Scott Brown in hopes of fixing what was ailing him.
“Me and Coach Brown got in the lab and fixed some things that I had wrong with me. I had a little tick in my windup that wasn’t right and it was throwing my mechanics off. I just had to get back in there, figure it out and I came out a lot better today.”
- Lack of offensive production
After a night where Vandy put up 12 runs on 14 hits, today was different, for both teams. The Commodores finished with just four runs on twelve hits, while the Bulldogs finished with three runs on five hits. If the Commodores plan on reaching their ultimate goal, which is a trip to Omaha, the bats simply have to be better than they have been.
- Runners left on base
Vandy had their opportunities today, they just couldn’t cash in when they needed to. It’s hard to beat anyone when you leave nine runners on base. Freshman Braden Holcomb had struck out twice in the later innings with runners on, both being golden opportunities for the home team. On top of that, there were a few key base-running blunders that didn’t help the cause either. Alan Espinal failed to tag up on a diving catch in shallow right center, a ball that he likely scores on. Meanwhile, Cam Kozeal was picked off at first base to erase a base-runner midway through the game. This team isn’t good enough offensively to leave nine runners on base and have as many base-running mistakes as they had today.
Game three of the series is tomorrow at 1 pm.
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