June 3, 2007
 |
|
Do or Die Sunday for Vanderbilt
Post-Game Column By Will Matthews
NASHVILLE – No one has to tell Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin the dire predicament his team finds itself in after losing a heart-stopping thriller to Big-10 champion Michigan Saturday night in a game that kept another packed house at Hawkins Field captivated into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
After shortstop Ryan Flaherty struck out swinging with the potential tying and winning runs aboard in the bottom of the ninth inning, the equation is simple for the Commodores: with no room left for error, Vanderbilt must win twice on Sunday and again on Monday night to keep what to this point has been a dream of a season alive.
“We’ll make sure that we are positive tomorrow I can guarantee you that,” Corbin said. “We will find a way to come back. We ran into a team that, like most of the year, is trying to knock you off, and they did a good job. But we will come back. They will have to sleep quickly tonight and rebound tomorrow and be positive.”
In so many ways, it was a game that seemed to be lining up just the way Vanderbilt has liked it all year.
Down by two late in the game, Vanderbilt left fielder Matt Meingasner drove a game-tying two-run homerun over the left center field wall with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning and there couldn’t have been anyone in attendance who didn’t believe the shot to be indicative of Vanderbilt beginning to once again find a way to win a close game.
But a night after Corbin talked at length about how his team has created their own magic all year by doing the little things to put themselves in position to win, it was the little things that eluded Vanderbilt Saturday and, for one night at least, put the supposed magic on hold.
After Michigan third baseman Adam Abraham led off the top of the ninth with a single off Vanderbilt reliever Brett Jacobson and was bunted over to second, a wild pitch by closer Casey Weathers allowed him to scoot to third.
He would later score the winning run on a two-out infield single that would have merely loaded the bases had he still been standing on second.
The Commodores left 11 men on base on the night – including two in the ninth – and were guilty on a number of occasions of chasing pitches out of the zone. After scoring 42 runs in its final four games of the SEC Tournament last week, Vanderbilt has scored just five in its two games of the NCAA Regional.
“They are trying to make something happen, and when things haven’t happened, sometimes you try too hard,” Corbin said. “Dominic was trying too hard. I think they all are. They are playing with a little bit of a backpack on their body right now and I have got to help them take that backpack off. I have got to relieve some pressure from them. I am doing the best I can. We’ll get this going. We need a game to get us going and hopefully it will be tomorrow at 2 p.m.”
It is then that Vanderbilt will have to do battle with a feisty Austin Peay team that staved off elimination earlier Saturday by trouncing Memphis 18-7 – a game Vanderbilt must win just to earn another must-win game against Michigan Sunday night.
And while Corbin didn’t bother dressing up the fact that his team will play Sunday with its back firmly against the wall, he didn’t have much interest in talking about anything other than his sheer belief that his team will respond.
“We’ll be back,” Corbin repeated to reporters several different times. “Trust me, we’ll be back. We will click. You watch. We will get this going.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He earned his Master of Divinity degree in 2007 from Vanderbilt Divinity School. To email Will your feedback, Click Here
