June 6, 2011
Senior Taylor Hill spent too many of his 15 starts this season watching late lead changes spoil quality outings to put the fate of his 16th start in the hands of anyone but himself. On a stage he was rarely able to enjoy amid countless no-decisions during the regular season, Hill struck out a career-high 13 Belmont batters on Sunday night to help clinch his team a spot in next weekend’s Super Regionals.
“If there’s anyone who’s been snake-bitten in our program, it’s Taylor Hill, and you would never know it,” Head Coach Tim Corbin said. “He wears it, doesn’t say a word, he’s team-oriented.”
Hill put up a stat line befitting the proverbial “tough-luck loser” in Vanderbilt’s 5-0 loss to Florida last Sunday in the SEC Tournament final in Hoover: seven innings pitched, one earned run, eight strikeouts. One week later, his teammates and the home crowd in Nashville picked him up with plenty of timely run support when he found his rhythm once again, sending down Bruin after Bruin and putting up another set of impressive numbers: eight innings, 13 strikeouts, one earned run, 112 total pitches.
“You got the home crowd cheering you on and wanting you to get that final strikeout,” Hill said. “That’s what it’s all about.”
“He gave us exactly that type of effort last weekend,” Corbin said of Hill. “It was good to see him be able to get that effort again and be on the top side of things after tonight.”
For the Belmont team that failed to score again after Tim Egerton’s solo home run in the second inning Sunday night, Hill’s success put an end to a magical weekend. It may have been tough luck that the Bruins took the Commodores’ best shot twice in three nights, but the cross-town underdogs hardly felt like losers after improbably defeating established programs Oklahoma State and Troy to reach the regional championship. Hill was just too good to beat, a worthy adversary to bring a close to an exciting Belmont run.
“We tried to push his pitch count up, tried to get him out of there sooner than we did, but we weren’t able to accomplish that,” Belmont Coach Dave Jarvis said. “On a personal note, I know Taylor, I know his family, and what an outstanding young man he is. So I’m happy to see him have an opportunity like he did tonight and flourish the way that he did.”
This year, Jarvis took his program four games and two victories farther than it had ever gone before in the postseason.
“It wasn’t easy, but it was fun,” said Nate Woods, who was Belmont’s starting pitcher and designated hitter in the win over Troy on Sunday afternoon and turned around to play first base Sunday night against Vanderbilt. “It was a fun run.”
Where that fun run ends, the Commodores’ quest to break new postseason ground for the school’s baseball program begins, and now Hill finds himself in the middle of it all less than a year after deciding to return for his senior season, gaining the recognition his coach believes he deserves.
“He didn’t have to (return to school), he could’ve signed,” Corbin said. “I’ve been in a lot of places where that kid signed just like this. Not Taylor Hill. He gets rewarded for being a good teammate.”
