April 5, 2018
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
NASHVILLE – Home is where the heart is. Vanderbilt baseball hopes home also leads to more wins.
In the first of eight straight games at Hawkins Field, No. 15 Vanderbilt fell to No. 16 Georgia, 3-2, on Thursday night. Despite a strong outing from sophomore pitcher Drake Fellows (7 IP, 5 K, 2 BB, 1 ER), the Commodores wasted a 2-0 lead in the top of the eighth and allowed the Bulldogs to reel off three straight runs, a stretch aided by an error from catcher Stephen Scott.
The end result was a sixth straight loss for Vanderbilt. Head coach Tim Corbin said the Dores can’t afford to harp on a disappointing skid.
“It’s just one game,” Corbin said. “Had we won six in a row, I’m not going to talk about how we’ve won the last six. You’ve got to treat each action and experience singularly. We do, that’s all there is to it.”
Despite the opening loss to Georgia, Vanderbilt hopes the upcoming streak of home games helps turn around their recent losing streak. Including this week’s series vs. the Dawgs, three of Vanderbilt’s next four series take place at Hawkins Field. That includes tilts with Ole Miss April 13-15 and South Carolina April 27-29. The Commodores also host midweek opponents Western Kentucky (April 10), Evansville (April 17) and Louisville (May 1) scattered in between.
The coming stretch is a welcome site for Vanderbilt, which embarked on a 10-day, seven-game road trip to Texas and California during nonconference play in March. The Dores have also played two of their first three SEC series on the road, including a three-game series against then-No. 2 Florida last weekend in Gainesville. There, Vanderbilt suffered its first regular-season sweep since 2012.
“March has been tough,” Corbin said. “From the time we left to the time we got back, it has been a lot of travel. These aren’t excuses, it’s just what kids have to go through when they’re going to school and playing baseball at the same time.”
Thursday’s loss notwithstanding, home-cooking has worked wonders for Vanderbilt for most of this season. The Commodores are 11-4 at home in 2018, and entering Thursday they had posted a .300 batting average and .497 on-base percentage at The Hawk.
Back within the friendly confines of Nashville, Corbin said the onus is on his Vanderbilt squad to have a short memory this weekend. The Dores square off in Game 2 vs. Georgia at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.
“You’ve got to have that feeling inside of you that you can do certain things,” Corbin said. “That’s where we’ve got to get to mentally before things start moving in the direction that they need to be.
“It happened during the early part of the season. We’re there. We lost a game, we haven’t lost talent. It’ll arrive tomorrow. We’ll just get right back at it — 24 hours make a hell of a difference. We’ll just get right back after it tomorrow and play ball again.”
Zac Ellis is the Writer and Digital Media Editor for Vanderbilt Athletics.