April 7, 2007
April 7 Game Recap: Vanderbilt 4 Alabama 2
By Will Matthews
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NASHVILLE – Safe to say Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin is somewhat enamored with junior Dominic de la Osa, his do-everything, play-anywhere anchor that Corbin says Vanderbilt could least afford to be without.
“He is like the perfect child that God raised,” Corbin said matter-of-factly Saturday evening after watching the Commodores beat Alabama for the second straight game, this time by a final count of 4-2. “I’m telling you, he is just one of those kids.”
And that’s before Corbin even begins to talk about de la Osa’s qualities as a baseball player.
While Corbin may have been guilty Saturday of being somewhat hyperbolic, the accolades that he heaps upon de la Osa are more than warranted. On a Vanderbilt team that has struggled at times in recent weeks to find its offensive groove, de la Osa has been the model of consistency, hitting .380 since the middle of March.
Two games after delivering a game-tying RBI double in the ninth inning Wednesday at Austin Peay, de la Osa helped spark the Commodores again Saturday, teaming with Pedro Alvarez in the third inning to deliver back-to-back homeruns on the way to a 3-for-4 day.
On the year, de la Osa is hitting .351 with seven homeruns – second on the team in both categories – and his 22 RBI’s is Vanderbilt’s third highest total. All this while occupying no less than six different spots in the Vanderbilt batting order during different junctures of the season.
“The thing about him is I pretty much have total confidence in him as a player,” Corbin said. “I feel like he has gotten to a point where he can hit wherever I put him in the lineup and so I just put him wherever I feel like I need him most.”
Corbin started de la Osa 46 times at shortstop a year ago as a sophomore, 13 times in left field and twice at designated hitter. Yet while his defensive assignment has been much more consistent this year – de la Osa had served as Vanderbilt’s everyday right fielder before he tweaked a hamstring last weekend at South Carolina that has relegated him to DH duty since – where he will hit in Vanderbilt’s order on any given day is more of a mystery.
He began the year in the five-hole, but then was dropped to the sixth slot after Vanderbilt’s first three games. He then spent a couple of weeks batting anywhere from fifth to seventh before being elevated to second for the series against Illinois-Chicago, a spot he occupied through the Arkansas series two weekends ago.
He batted leadoff against Middle Tennessee State March 28 and in the first two games against South Carolina last weekend, and has found himself hitting third during the first two games against Alabama this weekend.
“I’ll play wherever coach needs me to play,” de la Osa said. “I don’t question where he puts me. If he needs me anywhere, I’ll play anywhere and hit wherever he wants me to in the lineup.”
Where he hits hasn’t seemed to matter much to de la Osa – he has hit well from every place in the lineup.
“He has got tools,” Corbin said. “He can hit, he can hit with power and he can run. I think that is why you can put him in several spots. We don’t really have a true leadoff hitter but he is the closest thing to doing everything. He has done some nice things this year that we have never seen out of him: hitting triples down the line the opposite way, hitting more breaking balls and not swinging through them as much.”
Corbin attributes de la Osa’s offensive development to increased maturation as a hitter.
“He doesn’t let lapses in the game affect him like he did his freshman year,” Corbin said. “He could go on tangents where if you got him one time you’d probably have him for the rest of the game. I don’t see that anymore. He is just an anchor for us. We couldn’t afford to lose him.”
On Saturday, de la Osa struck out on three wild swings in the fifth inning, but recovered to drive a solid double down the left field line in the seventh.
“Dominic had one bad at-bat today but I love Dominic up to bat. I feel good and he feels confident too,” Corbin said. “The only thing I asked him after that bad at-bat where he struck out on three bad pitches, I just said, `Did you clear your mind?’ And he said `Yeah, I’m fine’ and I said `That’s all I need to know.’ Then he hit the double. He can look bad at times, but he is old enough now to where he can rebound. Freshman year he wouldn’t have rebounded from something like that.”
According to de la Osa, much of his success is directly related to an increased level of confidence.
“I’m real comfortable at the plate and so I am really confident right now,” de la Osa said. “I am seeing the ball well and so I am able to put good swings on the ball and I’m getting good results.”
Will Matthews spent three years as an investigative reporter with the Los Angeles Newspaper Group in Southern California. He is currently in his third year at Vanderbilt Divinity School.
