May 23, 2008
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| (Photo by Neil Brake) |
Baseball’s trickle up theory
Postgame Column by Rod Williamson
CLICK FOR MORE COVERAGE: VANDERBILT 7 SOUTH CAROLINA 5
HOOVER, Ala. — There are lots of theories out there…conspiracy theories, theories of relativity and the famous Trickle Down Theory of economics.
Today we will lead with the lesser known Trickle Up Theory of Baseball. Like any theory, conditions must be just right. In this elimination game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, those necessary stars were aligned.
The Vanderbilt offensive punch had come from the lower part of the lineup in Wednesday’s win over Florida and yesterday’s loss to LSU. Against the Gators, the `Dores pounded out 14 hits with nine of them coming from the six hole on down. There were just five hits to dissect against the Tigers and four came from those six through nine guys.
In today’s 7-5 victory over South Carolina, the Trickle Up Theory worked to perfection. Seven of the Commodores’ 10 hits came from the top four members of the batting order, including three from center fielder David Macias and a pair from Ryan Flaherty, who had combined to go three for 15 in those first games.
It also helped that starting pitcher Nick Christiani apparently didn’t need any theories to fashion one of his best outings of this or any other year. The junior right-hander scattered five hits and allowed just one earned run over 6 1/3 innings, exiting with a 7-1 lead.
Both Tim Corbin and USC skipper Ray Tanner called Christiani’s performance an obvious key.
“Nick controlled the middle part of South Carolina’s order,” Corbin noted of the dangerous trio of Justin Smoak, James Darnell and Phil Disher, who smacked to tape measure home runs but just one off the New Jersey product.
For Christiani, there was a smattering of redemption in his performance. Back on March 15 in a game in Columbia, Nick was battered with nine hits and nine runs in just 2 1/3 innings.
“They hit a lot of my mistakes in that last game,” Christiani remembered, “but today I was just trying to keep them off-balance and use this big park to my advantage.”
Vanderbilt also played some long ball in this park where deep line drives go to die. First baseman Andrew Giobbi had a two-run shot to left in the fourth inning while Pedro Alvarez got his groove back with a sizzler over the right field wall in the sixth.
The high-profile Alvarez was the subject of some pressbox buzz for two reasons. Speculation is rampant that he will soon become the No. 2 pick in the Major League Draft, going to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was also noted that the New York slugger had taken a couple hours of extra batting practice last night after going one-for-eight in his first two games.
Commodore closer Russell Brewer drew praise for his 1 1/3 innings of work while protecting the delicate 7-5 lead.
“Russell was a third baseman last year and was converted to the mound last summer in the Valley League,” Corbin said.
Corbin also singled out Macias as “the catalyst” of the game with his three hits and aggressive base-running – scoring from second base on an infield single by Flaherty.
Some on press row were surprised that Vanderbilt’s opponent tomorrow morning will be Ole Miss and not LSU, which has been in its bracket to this point. LSU will face the Kentucky-Alabama winner tomorrow.
Corbin explained that the SEC coaches had voted unanimously to make this change months ago.
“We all agreed that it would be more interesting and add variety to flip-flop the bracket at this point,” he explained. “Otherwise, in our case this year, we could end up playing LSU three times in four games and the same could be true in the other bracket. This makes good sense.”