Vanderbilt baseball head coach Tim Corbin reached 1,000 wins on March 5, 2024 as the Commodores defeated Eastern Michigan 6-2 at Hawkins Field. Corbin is one of only 10 active coaches in NCAA DI with 1,000 career wins.
In his 22nd season at Vanderbilt, Corbin has led the program to 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, which marks the longest active streak in Division I.
The Commodores have been to the College World Series five times, the finals four times and have won it all twice.
Since taking over as head coach in 2003, 55 players have been named All-America including 18 who have received first-team All-America recognition. More than 30 future Major Leaguers have come through the program under Corbin’s tutelage.
Win No. 1
A native of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, Corbin played college ball at Ohio Wesleyan and began his coaching journey at Ohio State as a graduate assistant. He served one year at Wofford as an assistant coach before receiving an offer from Presbyterian College to help restart the school’s baseball program which had been dormant for several years. Corbin led the Blue Hose from 1988-93, guiding the program to the ranks of NCAA DII.
Presbyterian won four games his first season followed by 13 in Year 2. PC won 20 or more games in each of Corbin’s next four seasons.
Corbin was named South Atlantic Coach of the Year in 1990 and the Blue Hose made three consecutive South Atlantic playoff appearances from 1991-93. Corbin won 106 games while at Presbyterian.
Clemson head coach Jack Leggett hired Corbin as an assistant coach prior to the 1994 season. Corbin was elevated to assistant head coach in 1998 and associate head coach in 2001.
Corbin was named National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2000 by Baseball America and the American Baseball Coaches Association after helping guide the Tigers to a College World Series appearance.
After the 2002 season, Vanderbilt reached out to the Clemson staffer about taking over the program in Nashville.
Win No. 107
Corbin was introduced as Vanderbilt’s 21st head coach on June 25, 2002.
His first win at Vanderbilt, career win No. 107, was a 4-3 victory vs. The Citadel on February 15, 2003 in Charleston, S.C.
Corbin’s first Vanderbilt team in 2003 finished 27-28 overall and 14-16 in the SEC, good enough for second in the Eastern Division. It earned a conference tournament berth with a season-ending sweep of Tennessee capped by a dramatic ninth-inning rally in the series finale. The overall and conference victory totals were the most by a first-year Vanderbilt coach.
Since then, the Commodores have averaged more than 44 wins per season and have reached the 50-win mark six times.
Corbin Over the Years
Win No. 622
Vanderbilt won its first College World Series title on June 25, 2014, defeating Virginia 3-2 in the final game. The win marked the school’s second NCAA championship and first men’s title.
Corbin’s Commodores rose to the occasion in the postseason sweeping through the Nashville Regional with wins over Xavier and Oregon before taking down Stanford in three games of the Super Regional to advance to Vanderbilt’s second College World Series in school history. Hawkins Field hosted NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals for the third time in four years. In Omaha, Corbin continued to push the Commodores with wins over rival Louisville in the first round and a comeback win over UC Irvine. Vanderbilt reached the championship series with a dramatic, walk-off win over Texas on Tyler Campbell’s bases loaded, infield single. The team sealed the national title in the third game thanks to an eighth inning, solo homer from John Norwood and clutch pitching from Adam Ravenelle. The final victory in Omaha gave the Dores a 10-3 record in the NCAA Tournament.
The Vanderbilt skipper was named the consensus National Coach of the Year.
Win No. 846
On June 26, 2019, the Commodores collected their second College World Series title.
Vanderbilt posted an SEC-record 59 wins during its historic championship campaign. The Commodores captured the SEC regular season and tournament titles, becoming the first program to accomplish the feat outright since Vandy’s 2007 program did so.
Vandy became the first school to reach the College World Series finals three times since the event moved to TD Ameritrade Park in 2011 and first to win multiple titles at the ballpark.
