OMAHA, Neb. — Vanderbilt’s start in the College World Series was long and arduous and, ultimately, rewarding. But now Vandy’s focus turns to the next challenge at hand – a red-hot North Carolina State team at 6 p.m. CT Monday in the winner’s bracket.
The Commodores (46-15) spent nearly five hours Saturday trying to get past a dangerous and heavy-hitting Arizona squad. And an hour before midnight, senior Jayson Gonzalez drove in Isaiah Thomas with a one-out, bases-loaded single to provide a 7-6 victory in the bottom of the 12th.
“Just a tough ball game in a lot of ways,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said afterward. “I don’t know if — I guess both sides felt like that thing would never end. But it did. We had to contain them. I thought we did such a good job of that particularly after the first inning.”
After getting in a 3-0 hole after one half inning Saturday, Vandy came back for what would eventually turn into its 12 come-from-behind victory of the season. Vanderbilt is also now 5-0 in College World Series openers and 17-7 at the event since making its first appearance in 2011.
The Commodores are also now 6-0 in this season’s NCAA Tournament. To keep that record unblemished they’ll have to play one of their best games against arguably the nation’s hottest team.
Despite being a preseason favorite to contend for the Atlantic Coast Conference, North Carolina State got off to a slow start in 2021 and in the middle of April sat at 16-13 overall. Since then, the Wolfpack have gone 20-5, won a regional in Ruston, Louisiana, and knocked off the nation’s top seed in the Fayetteville Super Regional at Arkansas (a series in which they lost the opener 21-2).
Coach Elliott Avent’s club is one of the top defensive teams in the nation but has also hit 91 home runs and slugs better than .500. Junior Evan Justice is one of the country’s top closers with 12 saves while junior Jonny Butler leads the squad in average (.385) and RBIs (53).
The Wolfpack beat Stanford 10-4 in their CWS opening-win Saturday.
“It’s always been a team win with us. That’s the way it’s been all year,” Avent said Saturday. “I said it at the beginning of the year, this is a team that throughout the lineup can figure out how to be productive and score runs. And that’s the name of the game.
“And we score in different ways because we can bunt, we can run, we can hit with power, hit gaps, singles. When you get to this stage with all the quality pitching that’s out there in the country, you have to be able to be versatile to score runs in this environment. And I think, once again, that showed.”
Vanderbilt and North Carolina State have met four times previously, most recently during the 2012 regional in Raleigh, North Carolina. Vandy lost 2 of 3 matchups that weekend.
In 1973, the Dores beat the Pack 4-2 in an NCAA Regional game in Starkville, Mississippi.
Sophomore Jack Leiter (10-3, 2.16) is scheduled to make his first career College World Series start for Vanderbilt. Should he lead the Commodores to victory, they’ll next play at 1 p.m. Friday while a loss means a 6 p.m. contest Wednesday in an elimination game.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
