#15 Vanderbilt Commodores (4-1, 0-0 SEC) vs. Saint Mary’s Gaels (4-1, 0-0 WCC)
Game 1: Friday, Feb. 21 @ 2 p.m. CT • SECN+
Game 2: Saturday, Feb. 22 @ 1 p.m. CT • SECN+
Game 3: Sunday, Feb. 23 @ Noon CT • SECN+
Series Preview: Vanderbilt welcomes Saint Mary’s to the Music City for a three-game series beginning Friday at 2 p.m. All three games will air on SEC Network+.
- The Commodores and Gaels each enter the weekend with a 4-1 record.
- Vanderbilt won both its midweek contests against Air Force and Saint Mary’s is coming off a Tuesday victory at No. 21 UC Santa Barbara.
- The Commodores and Gaels last met in 2017 when Vandy won two of three games in Nashville.
Last Time Out: The Commodores hosted Air Force on Monday and Tuesday, winning those games 3-1 and 5-2, respectively.
- In the two games vs. the Falcons, Vandy’s pitchers allowed one earned run and combined for 30 strikeouts over 18 innings.
- Rustan Rigdon went 4-for-5 and scored twice while also drawing two walks and stealing a pair of bases.
- Jacob Humphrey went 3-for-5 with a triple, two RBI and two stolen bases in Tuesday’s win.
- Vandy opened the season with five games in five consecutive days for the first time in program history since at least 2000.
Baseball in the Desert: The Commodores opened the season with a 2-1 weekend at the MLB Desert Invitational in Phoenix.
- Vandy faced three teams that competed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. The Dores got a big road win on Opening Day at Grand Canyon and closed the weekend out with a 9-8 victory over UC Irvine.
- In his Division I debut, Yavapai CC transfer Riley Nelson finished the weekend 6-for-13 with a home run, double, five RBI and four runs scored. Nelson hit a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning on Sunday vs. UC Irvine for his first home run as a Commodore.
- Vandy’s three starting pitchers totaled 19 strikeouts over 11.1 innings.
- RJ Austin got his junior season off to a hot start, sending the first pitch of the year down the third base line for a leadoff double on Opening Day at Grand Canyon. Austin then hit a 434-foot leadoff home run Saturday vs. No. 24 Nebraska. He finished the MLB Desert Invitational 6-for-14 with a home run, double, four RBI and four runs scored.
The 2025 VandyBoys: Vanderbilt’s 2025 roster features 22 returners and 21 newcomers.
- Seventeen states are represented on the roster. Tennessee leads the way with 10 Commodores followed by Texas with six and California, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey with three each.
- There is one graduate student, five seniors, eight juniors, 15 sophomores and 14 freshmen on the squad.
- Among the 21 newcomers, seven transferred in during the offseason.
- Jayson King and Ty Blankmeyer joined the coaching staff in the offseason. King was most recently the head coach at Dayton while Blankmeyer was an assistant coach at Duke.
The Gauntlet: Of Vanderbilt’s 56 games this season, 30 are against opponents who made it to the NCAA Tournament last season and 12 are against opponents who made it to Omaha.
- Six of Vandy’s opponents are ranked in the D1Baseball preseason poll including five in the top 10 and three in the top five.
