Looking to Get Back on a Roll

by Chad Bishop

GAME NOTES

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt baseball has put itself into a stratosphere in which it does not lose very often, much less lose games consecutively.

But as the Commodores (32-10, 14-7 SEC) prepare to welcome Alabama for a three-game series starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday, they find themselves on a three-game skid. Cause for panic?

Hardly.

“I don’t have long-term concerns. I know we’ve got a good team,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said this week. “We’re still getting better and we will – and we still have some guys that are trying to get back into some type of rhythm, too. It’s just a tough stretch being on the road. We played two very good teams. We just didn’t have much energy in our barrels it appeared to us.

“But we’ll get back and get home and we’ll be OK.”

After winning 11-7 at Florida on Friday, Vandy lost 11-8 and 5-3, respectively, before heading north to Louisville where it was on the short end of a 7-2 score against the Cardinals. The three-game losing streak is the first for the Dores since a six-game stretch from April 29-May 8 of 2018.

But outside the box score Corbin saw contests that were still competitive with a few plays here and there deciding the outcomes. And more close defeats continued a 2021 trend in such results – eight of Vandy’s 10 setbacks have been by an average of three runs.

“You don’t want to lose games, you don’t want to come up short,” Corbin said. “Florida was frustrating because you felt like you had opportunities, particularly on Sunday, and you gave opportunities away. And (Tuesday) was frustrating a little bit, too, because I felt as good as Louisville was, they hit three balls hard – two were home runs and one was a base hit up the middle. At the same time we had one inning where we felt like we created our own mess.

“Outside of that we just didn’t get the big hit when we needed one and we came out short. But we’re going to move forward and we’ll be fine.”

Like any team trudging its way through a long season, change is a variable dealt with in a daily capacity.

Vanderbilt has used both Chris McElvain (3-1, 4.40) and Thomas Schultz (4-2, 4.62) for Sunday starts and received mixed results. In the bullpen, Corbin confirmed this week that reliable reliever Sam Hliboki with miss the rest of the season with injury while Ethan Smith is still progressing toward a return to competition.

In the lineup, only Enrique Bradfield, Parker Noland and Carter Young have started all 42 games. Tate Kolwyck has recently made his way back into the order while Cooper Davis has been in and out of the lineup.

Corbin said making any sort of changes to either the rotation or the starting nine won’t be done just for the sake of the ability to do so.

“I think the one thing you want to do is keep the harmony of the group as close to consistent as possible because really that’s who we are,” he said. “You don’t want to make widespread changes unless they help the group moving forward. You don’t want to ever alarm the kids.”

Vandy will hope to reverse fortunes against an improved Alabama side (28-15, 11-10 SEC) playing just its 15th road affair of the season. The Crimson Tide are coming off a sweep of Missouri and have won four in a row overall.

Second baseman and lead-off hitter Peyton Willis leads the SEC in hits with 60 and starter Dylan Smith has fanned 86 hitters – 16th-most in the nation. The Crimson Tide are also one of the top defensive teams in the league with a .978 fielding percentage and has turned 37 double plays.

Vanderbilt comes into the weekend tied with Tennessee atop the SEC East standings and one game ahead of Florida. The Dores travel to Ole Miss next weekend before ending the regular season at home against Kentucky.

All told, Vandy plays eight of its final 11 games at Hawkins Field.

“It’s always good to play at home – especially after going to Gainesville and then Louisville, taking (Wednesday) and getting some time academically for the kids will be good,” Corbin said. “Playing on our turf will certainly be satisfying for everyone.”

— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.