NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt’s next challenge on the long road of the 2021 season is, by far, its most-challenging.
The Commodores (26-5, 9-3 SEC) head across the state this weekend to face long-time rival – and suddenly one of the league’s top squads – Tennessee. At 28-6 and tied with Vandy for first-place in the SEC’s East Division, the Volunteers are less than six years removed from a losing season for fourth-year head coach Tony Vitello.
“They’re playing very confidently,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said of Tennessee. “They’ve got a nice blend of older players with some very good younger players. Their pitching is good – it’s really good. Their starting pitching has been very consistent and I think what they bring out of the bullpen supplements that.
“From an offensive standpoint there is just a lot that they can do. There is some power numbers and certainly some very athletic kids that can move. I think their ability to play – it would be almost like a football offense that can pass, can run, can do a lot of different things. I like their team.”
Tennessee has taken three-game series from Georgia, LSU, Alabama and Florida, respectively, and is 18-3 at Lindsey Nelson Stadium. It leads the nation in walks (201) and is among the top 10 in doubles, hits, runs, walks allowed per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio.
A unanimous top-10 team, the Volunteers, however, have not taken a three-game series from No. 2 Vandy since 2016.
“I definitely don’t think it’s any different than any other week,” Vanderbilt starting pitcher Jack Leiter said. “We really do try to take every game one game at a time and treat every game as if it’s the national championship. We’re really just doing our best to stay in the moment and not take any take anything for granted and just trying to get better and better every single day.
“We know that we have some large end-of-the-season goals and in order to get there we have to really to take it day-by-day and get a lot better.”
Vanderbilt is coming off a 6-4 win over Eastern Kentucky at Hawkins Field on Tuesday. But before that the Dores took one on the chin against a hot Georgia team in a series where they were outscored 25-8.
Corbin said there’s no specific timetable for the possible return of Tate Kolwyck or Cooper Davis to his lineup – although junior outfielder Isaiah Thomas was back in action during Tuesday’s win. As for the rotation, Patrick Reilly (3-1, 3.18) will start Sunday’s series final after Kumar Rocker (7-1, 1.88 ERA) throws Friday and Leiter (7-0, 0.55 ERA) pitches Saturday.
Regardless of who is in and who is out, the veteran skipper is still getting to know much about this season’s squad.
“I think as you precede through the conference you start learning more traits about your team and where they’re vulnerable and they’re the warts are,” Corbin said. “I think the quicker you can identify what those are, the quicker you can get to them and improve upon them. And I think that’s where we are right now.
“I want to see how we’re going to react to this particular situation. This team we’re about to play this weekend is going to be a very difficult team to play for a lot of different reasons, not just because they’re at home, but because of who they are and their baseball personality. It’s very strong in my opinion.”
This weekend’s series begins a tough stretch of games for Vandy which includes contests against Mississippi State, Florida and Louisville, respectively. The Commodores are also a little more than a month away from the start of the SEC Tournament.
A three-game set in Knoxville will certainly have all the atmosphere of a postseason series.
“Our only competition is really ourselves,” Leiter said. “If we can push ourselves and push each other to get better each and every day then it doesn’t matter what we did last weekend. It matters where we’re at at the end of the season.”
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.