June 3, 2011
Recap: Vanderbilt 10, Belmont 0 | Tournament Central
On Friday night, Vanderbilt jumped out to an early lead for two quick runs, cycled through the bullpen to shut the door late and left the sellout crowd with one enduring collective sentiment about the Commodores’ 10-0 victory over Belmont: That was fast.
The nightcap on the opening day of NCAA Regional play in Nashville wrapped up in a tidy two hours, eight minutes – not quite the five-minute, 1.4-mile car ride that Google Maps will report fulfills the short trip across town from Belmont’s campus to Hawkins Field, but as baseball games go, a notable achievement in brevity.
Credit that achievement to Vanderbilt starting pitcher Sonny Gray, who was perfect through 14 Bruin batters and made short work of several others, and to the entire Commodore attack for wasting little time putting their first-round opponent away.
“We preach pace here,” Gray said. “Get the ball, get back on the rubber and throw the next pitch. It keeps your defense involved, and that’s what Coach Johnson and Coach Corbin preach. They want us to get the ball and throw the pitch, get the ball and throw the pitch. And it keeps you in a rhythm, keeps your defense in a rhythm, and it’s easier to throw strikes.”
“We were just trying to come out fast, and hopefully we can do the same thing tomorrow against Troy,” said catcher Curt Casali, who doubled to drive in the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the first. Casali was one of four Vanderbilt batters who put the first pitch of their at-bats in play in the first inning, wasting little time challenging Belmont starter Matt Hamann and the fielders behind him.
“That could have been a philosophy that they took into the ballgame,” said Belmont head coach Dave Jarvis of Vanderbilt’s willingness to swing early – the Commodores put the first pitch in play 16 times in all. “Matt is a tremendous strike-thrower, and if I were writing a scouting report on him, I’d probably say you need to try to look to hit early in the count because if he gets ahead of you, he becomes a much more devastating pitcher.”
“He was staying around the zone pretty much the whole game,” said shortstop Anthony Gomez of Hamann. “Guys were seeing the ball up and putting good swings on it, so I guess we just stuck with that approach from that point on.”
Known for power that can overwhelm hitters off the mound, Gray took advantage of the Bruins’ own willingness to swing, pitching to contact at times and allowing his fielders to back him up.
“He was pitching at 93-94 – he had dominating stuff – but he was also pitching to contact, I felt like,” Jensen said. “That’s what guys in the big leagues do. Sonny was executing more than just his fastball. He was executing his off-speed pitches for strikes as well, and of course getting us into weak contact situations.”
And when weak contact was indeed made, the players behind Gray stepped up and used their speed to make the out, the most memorable example coming when freshman Tony Kemp laid out on a dead run to bring down a short pop fly into left field and rob Dylan Craig of a base hit in the top of the sixth inning.
“I think any ball that goes up in the air, everyone’s pretty confident that it’s not going to drop,” Gomez said of the outfielders behind him. “Between Tony, Connor, Yaz, they cover so much ground that any ball in the air, even a line drive, you’re pretty confident that they’re going to put a glove on it somewhere, somehow.”
With the victory, the Commodores need only two more victories to advance to the Super Regional. Naturally, the quickest possible route to Omaha runs through the winner’s bracket.
