The Vanderbilt baseball team will put its fall training progress on full display this week during the program’s annual Black and Gold Series at Hawkins Field.
Coming off a national championship five months ago, Vandy began working toward a new season with an eventful October and November that included a trip to Kansas City, Missouri, and a historic exhibition against Michigan.
“Any time you bring the team together it’s just about competing hard against one another,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said. “Now, they’ve been able to do that and they’ve been able to recreate that competitiveness in this duration. At no point have we gone out there and thought that it was dull and stale.
“Now I do think the schedule in the fall has been advantageous to us because it has allowed us time off in certain moments and we’ve also spaced out the competition so that they can look forward it and it’s not an everyday occurrence. I think because of that they’ve competed against each other real well.”
The Commodores have seen all sorts of newcomers take the field as they try to form a foundation for the 2020 season which begins in February. Freshmen Will Duff, Spencer Jones, Parker Noland and Carter Young have all been inserted into starting lineups while Jack Leiter, Michael Doolin, Sam Hiboki and Nick Maldonado are some of the first-year pitchers to have gotten opportunities on the mound.
That’s provided plenty of teaching and learning moments for Corbin, now in his 18th season with the program.
“We got a lot of maturing to do from a baseball developmental standpoint,” Corbin said. “The transition from the younger guys has been clean in terms of academics and school, but there’s going to be growing process on the field. There’s no doubt about that.
“I think they’re talented, it’s just going to take time. The only way we’ll be able to get through that is games and experience. It’s quite noticeable, too, because we’ve had those guys on the field so often because the older guys have not been.”
Part of Vanderbilt’s fall training included a trip to Kansas City where the team toured the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum before playing Oklahoma State in a scrimmage. The Dores outscored OSU 12-7 in 16 innings of ball and got 10 RBIs combined from Noland, Matt Hogan and Dominic Keegan.
Then, last weekend, Vandy hosted Michigan as part of the David Williams Fall Classic. The Commodores were held to five hits in that exhibition.
In 25 innings pitched this fall, Vanderbilt has allowed just 22 hits and struck out 35 batters combined in the games against Michigan and Oklahoma State.
“The younger kids are strike throwers. That’s been seen,” Corbin said. “They handled themselves well in the environment Sunday which was important because that wasn’t easy. I think they’ll be able to help us and I think that they’ll need to just because of the numbers situation.
“I like who they are right now. But there again, it’s just short durations so I haven’t seen a whole lot.”
Despite the high number of fresh faces, Vanderbilt returns 2019 closer Tyler Brown, starters Mason Hickman and Kumar Rocker and pitchers Jake Eder, Hugh Fisher, Ethan Smith and Chance Huff. Outfielders Cooper Davis, Tate Kolwyck, Justyn-Henry Malloy and Isaiah Thomas are back as well along with infielder Austin Martin, second baseman Harrison Ray, catchers Ty Duvall and Keegan and third baseman Jayson Gonzalez.
Keegan is part of a group now fighting for starting jobs after seeing a limited on-field role during the 2019 season.
“We had a great group of seniors and juniors and older guys that just showed us the way,” Keegan said. “My goal this year is just to compete every day and improve every day and help these young guys the way that the older guys last year helped me.
“I never settled for not being able to play because of older guys in front of me. I came in here last year trying to compete. But even though I didn’t play I still took advantage of the opportunity of having those older guys with me and just picking up on everything. Asking them questions everyday and picking up on the little things that they do that will help improve me as a person and as a player.”
Vanderbilt’s Black and Gold Series is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Thursday with a second game at 5 p.m. Friday. If the series is tied the two teams will play a winner-take-all, two-inning tiebreaker Friday night.
The event is free to the public.
“I think it sets up well in terms of what we can do for pitching and who can pitch and how competitive the teams are,” Corbin said. “I think they’re very evenly-matched from what I can tell.”
