California Commodores

Vanderbilt ventures west for Southern California College Baseball Classic

LOS ANGELES – Second-ranked Vanderbilt faces its biggest early-season test when the Commodores take on a pair of nationally-ranked opponents as part of the Southern California College Baseball Classic beginning at 8 p.m. CT Friday against No. 6 UCLA.

The Commodores (11-3) will face Southern Cal at 4 p.m. CT Saturday and No. 22 TCU at noon CT on Sunday. Both contests will take place at the Trojans’ Dedeaux Field. Friday’s opener at the Bruins will be held at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The first two contests can be seen at no cost by visiting Pac-12.com. All three games can be heard on WNSR 560 AM/95.9 FM and the TuneIn app.

UCLA (11-1) suffered its first loss of the season Tuesday, falling 8-5 to UC Santa Barbara. USC (7-4) took 2 of 3 from Seton Hall last weekend but fell Tuesday, 5-1 to UC Irvine. Likewise, the Horned Frogs (10-2) also dropped their Tuesday matchup, 6-4 to UT-Arlington, spanning a five-game win streak.

NEED TO KNOW
Vanderbilt has recorded 11 consecutive true road victories dating to April 9, 2019. The stretch is the longest for a Commodore team since winning 13 straight from April 28, 2013-March 18, 2014. Vanderbilt’s last nonconference road loss was a 4-3, 7-inning defeat April 3, 2018, at Middle Tennessee.

Vanderbilt starting pitching has been among the best in the country to start the season. Commodore starting pitchers have gone 9-1 with a 1.38 ERA while limiting opponents to a .149 average. In 71.2 innings, the group has registered a 102-23 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 14 starts. At home, the group is 8-1 with a 1.41 ERA in 57.1 innings.

Vanderbilt boasts several links to the west coast for both current and former student-athletes. Two-fifths of the 2020 Dodgers starting rotation are Commodore standouts (Walker Buehler, David Price). Three Commodores are currently with the San Francisco Giants (Tyler Beede, Sam Selman, Mike Yastrzemski).  Four student-athletes call California home: Sterling Hayes (San Diego), Sam Hliboki (Los Angeles), Spencer Jones (Encinitas) and CJ Rodriguez (Newport Beach).

UP NEXT
Vanderbilt begins a stretch of 13 consecutive games in the state of Tennessee when the Commodores open a four-game homestand at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday against Toledo. Outfield tickets are available for $7 and infield seats are priced at $16.

Kids are admitted at no cost to Wednesday’s game. The promotion, which applies to those in eighth grade and younger the day of game, will allow kids in free to all nonconference games through March 31. The promotion will be limited based on ticket availability.