June 3, 2007
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Bullpen to the Rescue as Vanderbilt Lives Another Day
Post-Game Column By Will Matthews
NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin said with a straight face Saturday night that he still would have liked his team’s chances to win back-to-back elimination games even if he had known Saturday morning that he would get just 7.2 innings of combined work out of his two starters.
Not normally one to be anything less than candid, Corbin may well have had so much faith in his stalled offense breaking out of the doldrums that plagued it during the first two games of the Nashville Regional that it would compensate for any shortcomings his team would endure on the mound.
“I thought that if we hit that we would piece things together, I guess,” Corbin said. “But I don’t know. What Ty [Davis] and Brett [Jacobson] did today was huge. But I am not so sure. I felt at some point that we were going to hit enough to widen the margin of a couple of these games.”
Either way, there is little question that Vanderbilt would likely not be alive, kicking and preparing for Monday night’s regional championship against Michigan if not for the right arms of Davis and Jacobson.
Davis came out of the bullpen in the day’s first game to spell struggling starter Cody Crowell in the fourth inning of Vanderbilt’s 11-5 win over Austin Peay, a win that earned the Commodores a second shot at Michigan after falling to the Wolverines Saturday night 4-3.
And while the offense – which managed to plate just five runs in Vanderbilt’s first two games this weekend – was emergent once again in the nightcap, it might not have made a difference had Jacobson not thrown six innings of two-hit ball in relief of Nick Christiani who couldn’t manage to get out of the fifth.
Davis and Jacobson allowed just two unearned runs between them in 10.1 innings of sparkling relief work Saturday, not only ensuring two Vanderbilt victories but also saving the rest of the pitching staff so that the club will have some fresh arms Monday.
“What those two kids did was enormous,” Corbin said. “The fact that they could finish games was huge.”
Davis replaced Crowell with two out in the fourth inning in the day’s first game against Austin Peay, with what had been a three-run Vanderbilt lead having been cut to two by virtue of two Governor doubles and the tying run coming to the plate.
Davis struck out Austin Peay left fielder Josh Kemph to end the threat and went on to allow just three hits in five additional innings while racking up eight strikeouts.
Jacobson entered game two in the bottom of the fifth after Christiani, staked to a seven-run lead after Vanderbilt scored seven in the second and added two more in the top of the fifth on a two-run Brad French homer, allowed Michigan to creep back within four. After recording the first out of the inning on a fly ball, Jacobson induced an inning-ending double play. He would go on to allow just two hits and two unearned runs in four additional innings, walking two and striking out three.
“They not only came in and stopped the bleeding twice in Ty’s case and Brett’s case, but they finished the game,” Corbin said. “I mean, we sent [Jason] Cunningham down [to warm up in the bullpen], and we sent Casey [Weathers] down there as well. But it was so important for them to chew up innings so we can be active tomorrow. And now we will just do whatever we can do. Tomorrow we will have to just take a roll call when we get to the park and see who can throw.”
Right-hander Tyler Rhoden will most likely get the starting nod Monday, Corbin said, but the Vanderbilt skipper will also have a number of other arms in reserve – a luxury that Vanderbilt might not have had if not for Davis and Jacobson.
“It’s huge because that game tomorrow is going to come down to the bullpen and who has pitchers left,” Jacobson said. “I knew that when I came into the game that my goal was to finish that game out. I knew we had a cushion of a few runs so I was thinking that I need to finish this game so we can save some guys for tomorrow. Fortunately I was able to stay in there and finish the game.”
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
