Everything Vanderbilt's Coach and Players Said After Season-Ending Loss

No. 1 Vanderbilt's season came to a disappointing end Saturday in a 5-4 loss to Wright State in a NCAA Regional game at Hawkins Field.

You can read about the specific game details here, but here's what Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin and players said after the season-ending loss:

Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin's Opening Statement...

Congratulations to Wright State and to Alex and his staff, they played tough, they played with energy. They came out and got us in the first inning, landed a punch. By no means did we think the game was out of play, but at that point it was a pretty good gut punch. After that inning we pitched really, really well. [Alex] Kranzler was outstanding. He fought, battled, kept the game right where it was. And then Miller (Green) after him, so a big double play in the middle of the game was a momentum canger. We thought, at least at the time, it certainly was from a standpoint of negating runs. But, you know, for us it just was tough. It was hard. It was just hard to come by. It felt tough. It felt heavy. The guys were trying. I feel like I didn't equip them properly in some way. Having done this a lot of times, I just feel like I didn't equip them for this moment. But they were trying. We felt like we were going to pull it out. Mike had another big hit. He's been so much to us throughout the year, but certainly down the stretch. He's a good leader. He's tough. Kids play tough. It's unfortunate getting this point. It really, really stings for the kids. I hate it for them. I hate it for them. You know, you work so hard to get yourself in a position where you can win. And when it ends, it's always the same. It's just a perilous game as we got there.

Mike (Mancini), what was kind of the issue offensively for y'all over the first eight innings today?

We just didn't find holes. I think we struck out three times. Usually when you see that, you have more hits than runs. It just wasn't how the game lined up to be today. We fought hard. We had a lot of really hard-hitting balls on the ground. I think the play isn't as good as their pitcher.

Mike, I know you thought this team could go pretty far. How much does it sting for it to end here, kind of like you were talking about?

Yeah, it stings a lot. But, you know, just right off the bat, I kind of goes to day one. When we sat in the classroom from the year on, just huge props to the coach. I mean, yeah, we didn't do what we wanted to, but we don't want to. But this whole team and I can attest. I mean, I've learned more how to be a man, how to be a leader, how to be calm in chaos. And that all stems from the classroom. The results aren't what we wanted, but over the course of the year, when we look back, we'll be able to smile. We're a lot farther in manhood than we'll ever be. And that's a huge, huge thanks to the coach and the players.

Mike, I think you guys trailed in, like, 26 of the 27 innings in this regional. Is it tough to not feel like you're kind of chasing the game? Do you think that affected you guys' play?

I don't think it affected us at all. We were trailing against, you know, all season kind of, you know, we needed to win to, you know, get this seed or we needed to win because, you know, the whole SEC was in the middle of the pack, and we found a way to do it. And, you know, it sucks when you're in an elimination game and it doesn't go your way, but, you know, you could have easily went the other way and just did that ground rule double. You know, a lot of times we had a ground rule double all year, and that would have scored. But it just didn't fall in our hands, in our favor, and just kind of credit to our team, swallow your pride.

Mike, can you take us through the ground rule double? Like, obviously it seemed like you thought you scored.

Yeah, I thought I scored, you know, when Rustan hit it. I think I was halfway to second, and Johnny just looked at me and said, that was your ground rule double. And, you know, obviously I got more excited because RJ is coming up to the plate. And, you know, if you were to see how much he worked all year and, you know, the leadership he had for us this whole year, like, I think everyone in that dugout, you know, in the field that was wearing these jerseys would have been like, I think we were like, you would have thought we were up 10-0 just at the plate. And, again, it just didn't go our way. And sometimes that's how it goes. But, you know, can't really swallow your pride.

Alex (Kranzler), coming into the situation you did what was it that allowed you to kind of keep them at bay for four innings?

The situation doesn't really change anything for what we're trying to do. At the end of the day, it's just executing pitch one at a time, just putting 100% effort into that.

Tim (Corbin), when you said you didn't think that you properly equipped them, what did you mean by that in terms of, you know, maybe what you might have done in previous years that didn't happen this year?

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I can't pinpoint. It just is a feeling when I get done and I have an opportunity to process these games a little bit and write my notes down. Just whether it's messaging or communicating, you know, at this point during the course of the year, too, probably want to communicate less. But I felt like we were really, really trying. We were really trying hard. And you could tell, especially at the plate, guys were recruiting more energy to try to move the bat. When that happens, you clip balls. And, you know, I don't want to minimize the effort of that kid, but these are things that, you know, we've been through during the course of the year. And, you know, we look up in the eighth inning and Mike's point, you know, he hit some balls hard, but that kid's still on the mound. And, you know, you're looking at just one hit, one hit to his extra base, and you're thinking, okay, at some point this is going to break. You know, it did in the ninth, but I don't know. I'm going to go back and think about this because I certainly want to get better from it.

Tim, have you had a more surprising outcome in this tournament?

I think we're all surprised when you're finished. You know, I don't think when you're out, you're out. There hasn't been a day where we've been out of a tournament where we don't feel the same way. Right now at this moment, I don't. I feel great about the effort and how hard we played. I just wish the outcome was different for the boys. That sucks. It's the nature of the game. It's cruel.

Tim, you said the other night that you can't just go in the dugout and say, hey, loosen up, everybody. I mean, it doesn't work that way. What could you do? I mean, is there really any answer for when guys are pressing?

The game usually works its way out. You can see that we kind of ran out of time. We were getting to that point where we were on the edge. We got in that dugout, and the players were communicating, we're going to roll this ninth, we're going to roll the ninth, and you could feel the momentum shift. But you just ran out of time. But, no, you can't. I mean, it's going to happen organically. The kids are trying to get themselves going. They're trying to stay very positive, which they were. But I think when you've got a group of guys, and this isn't the case with every team, but when you have kids that really, really care about each other, then that, too, can play into trying to finish something because everyone wants it for one another. When you want it for one another and it doesn't work out, sometimes you're trying harder, and I can feel that. And there's no magic words, magic dust for that moment, but you can sense that these kids really, really wanted this for each other. And sometimes when that happens, it's squeezing the bird too hard.

You talked a lot in the past about how you like the personality of this team and you liked when they came together. Is that something that makes this thing a little bit more?

Yeah, I love them. I'm just bummed I can't be with them. That sucks. It really sucks. I'm on the tail end of... I don't take anything for granted. I don't need a damn life scare to appreciate what I'm doing every day. But, you know, you get to the ballpark, you get to the yard every morning, put on the pants, and it's just like, okay, next week you put on the pants, no one's there, locker room's cleaned out. I mean, it's a heavy, heavy hit. We spend a lot of time at this. Everyone, when it's done, it's just really tough, really tough. Max is out. You know, that's what it is.

Tim, you know, the offense had really surged over the past six weeks of the season, and then in the regional felt like it kind of disappeared. Is there anything that was different offensively compared to the past several weeks?

You know, it's a hit here and there. It's a move. You know, Barsi's ball, different last night. You know, if that ball finds a hole, game's completely different. You know, playing tonight, you know, Brewster's ball, it hit just a little bit harder with a little bit more line, stays lower, hits the fence. You know, it's the game. It's just the game. It's the difference between winning in 14 and 15. Ball didn't hit the third base bag in 15. It hit in 14. We won a national championship. It's just bounces and some luck associated with this stuff. But, you know, it's just tough baseball.

Tim, you know, how did you make the decision to start Austin and I today and then, you know, moving on from him after one inning?

Yeah, it wasn't much of a decision. I mean, after the weekend last weekend, we just wanted to keep it the same. So it just, you know, they took good swings and four hard hit balls. And at that point right there, they were seeing the ball pretty well. They weren't getting the ball. I don't know if it was flat or not. I mean, there's no one that feels worse than he does. So we had the right kid out there. It just didn't go well. But it felt like we needed to make a change. And when we made the change, Alex did a great job of just recapturing the pace of the game. I thought he did a great job, especially at that point. He went in and felt like, okay, here we go. So, yeah, just didn't work out.

Tim, even with the result being what it is in this tournament, do you feel like this team got the program back closer to where you were, you know, where everyone was accustomed to it being for a very long time?

Yeah. I mean, especially since we had that conversation in the office about a year ago, a year and a half ago, we were talking about the program. Yeah, I felt that we didn't maximize it because, you know, if you maximize something, you go to the end. But I felt like we've got some really cool personalities on the team that really helped shape the team. Might be new. Certainly added a lot to the program. Look at a guy like Alex who's a sophomore, he's growing, he's maturing. He's going to play a bigger role next year. Yeah, I feel good about it. I feel good about where we are right now today. At the end of it, yeah, there's no doubt. I don't think anyone is, you know, a number one seed, essence and champion. None of them. Guys put together a nice year, and they'll recognize that when it's all said and done. There's only going to be one team that everyone else is going to feel like we did. There's going to be one team that feels different. It's a tough road to get through. College baseball is tough. We have 300-plus teams who want to finish at the end. It's really difficult to do.