Inside Tommy Goodin's Walk-Off Grand Slam For Vanderbilt Baseball Over Tennessee

Vanderbilt baseball first baseman Tommy Goodin went yard to seal a Vanderbilt win over Tennessee as well as a sweep. Here's what it took to get it done.

Tommy Goodin went yard to give Vanderbilt baseball a win over Tennessee. | Vanderbilt baseball

NASHVILLE—-The applause from the last remaining fans at Hawkins Field had just dissipated and the day’s hero took on the form of a mere mortal, trying to grasp what had just happened in a moment that will define his Vanderbilt career forever. 

Once Tommy Goodin thought about it for a second, he realized that he had just captured magic as his walk-off grand slam sailed over the left field fence, giving Vanderbilt its third walk off in as many days to secure a sweep over Tennessee. He had the evidence, too. 

Goodin emerged from the field and handed his mom the ball that he took the other way for his walk-off grand slam so that she would have something to remember this moment by. That wouldn’t have been an issue either way, though. 

“We’re never going to forget this day,” Goodin’s mom Denise told Vandy on SI. “This is the greatest day.”

Goodin’s mom doesn’t know exactly how her son acquired the ball after it went into the stands, but she doesn’t appear to mind. As she stands in the concourse of Hawkins Field, she’s grasping the ball with her right hand and isn’t letting it go. As she clutches it, the SEC logo is nearly radiating off of it. 

The ball represents fate as well a moment that is inarguably the best of Goodin’s Vanderbilt career and may be the best of Vanderbilt’s season. Goodin’s parents flew in for the weekend from Thousand Oaks, California, and hadn’t been to a game yet this season. They picked the right weekend, though. 

They may have just witnessed their son turning around this Vanderbilt baseball season with a swing of the bat. Even if that doesn’t end up being the case, he immortalized himself in this rivalry’s history. 

“It’s something in my dreams,” Goodin said. “It was an awesome moment, man. It was just a surreal real moment that I'll always remember forever and with all the guys and we'll cherish that, so it's awesome.”

Goodin and Vanderbilt swept Tennessee. | Vanderbilt baseball

This trip to Nashville almost ended in Denise and Thomas–who is Tommy’s dad–Goodin watching 35 innings of baseball without seeing their son take the field outside of warmups. In an alternate reality where fate didn’t have its way, the highlight of the weekend would’ve involved Goodin and his parents sharing a few embraces rather than anything that happened on the field. Goodin hadn’t taken the field until the last at-bat of Vanderbilt’s sweep of Tennessee and wasn’t one of Vanderbilt’s top two first basemen on the depth chart throughout the weekend. 

Here he was standing in the on-deck circle taking a few swings as Tennessee changed pitchers from Mark Hindy to Brayden Krenzel while Mack Whitcomb emerged from the dugout to pinch hit, though. Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin says the move was simple in that he wanted to make a push to win the game in the ninth and use Goodin’s left-handed bat against Krenzel to do so. 

Goodin’s previous body of work–in which he’s appeared in just three games and hasn’t started a game since Mar. 15–would indicate that he was an unlikely suspect to deliver the signature moment of Vanderbilt’s season. Here he was giving it a chance, though. 

Before Goodin was set to face Krenzel on the pitch that allowed him to deliver his heroics, Vanderbilt hitting coach Jason Esposito stopped the game so that he could deliver a message to his redshirt freshman. Goodin says Esposito didn’t show him much on the iPad, but says Esposito asked him what he was thinking and made sure he was in the right headspace before facing Krenzel. 

Goodin says that Esposito has helped him transition from exclusively a see ball, hit ball guy to a process-driven hitter in the box. The Vanderbilt first baseman says he understands what he’s looking at more these days than he did previously. Sunday was perhaps the best example. Goodin says he knew that Krenzel was struggling to command his pitches and that he could tell based off of watching Krenzel’s warm up pitches that he was prone to making a mistake while desperately trying to get one over the plate. 

When Goodin got into the box, he says he felt like it was just him and Krenzel competing. He couldn’t hear the crowd. He was set on making sure he was composed. The potential to overdo it in that situation was tempting, but Goodin didn’t bite on it.

Goodin was an unlikely suspect to walk Sunday's game off, but that didn't stop him. | Vanderbilt baseball

“When you do the simple things correctly, it really translates into the bigger moments,” Goodin said. “I was just trying to just stick to a plan and do that.”

Not everyone was that levelheaded, though. 

“I was nervous,” Goodin’s dad told Vandy on SI. “My reaction was when he got up there, when he put him in. I was telling my wife ‘he's been through this before’ but I didn't know, because if you hit into a double play it's over.” 

“I wanted to throw up,” Goodin’s mom added. 

Goodin says he wasn’t trying to do anything to keep the line moving and move runners over by getting something to hit in his go zone. When he finally got something, he unleashed his raw power on Krenzel’s pitch and hit it a mile high. Goodin doesn’t remember what the pitch was because of the spontaneous nature of the moment, but he’ll likely find the answer in the nearly countless replays he’ll inevitably watch. 

This was that type of moment. 

Goodin rounded first base as if he was still under the assumption that the ball wasn’t getting out of the yard, but he likely shouldn’t have had any doubts. The towering fly ball that Goodin reached towards the bottom of the zone to get a hold of slipped through a fan’s hands in the back row of the left field stands and found its way to the walkway between the bleachers and Memorial Gymnasium. 

“Walk off grand slam for Tommy Goodin!,” the ESPN broadcast said. “Three-straight walkoffs for Vanderbilt!” 

By the time Goodin rounded second, the moment appeared to be sinking in. Goodin put his fist up and approached third as the rest of Vanderbilt’s roster ran home as if to make sure they weren’t late to greet Goodin at the plate. 

Goodin skipped in his final few steps towards home before being swarmed in a sea of green jerseys. By the time Goodin was out of the mob, his shirt was removed and he was granting individual embraces to each of his Vanderbilt teammates. They knew what this meant to him and they were taking the moment seriously. 

“It’s awesome,” Vanderbilt center fielder Rustan Rigdon said. “To see him have his moment like that, it’s awesome.” 

As Goodin ran into the dugout, the Vanderbilt whistler was starting a “black, gold” chant in the stands behind home plate. Goodin’s jersey was back on by the time Corbin had dismissed Vanderbilt’s players from the dugout postgame and he walked towards the left field corner for his postgame press conference. 

Goodin soaked it in for just over five minutes there after Rigdon’s remarks were finished and entered the stands to greet a few onlookers in the moments following his media availability. As he did so, he was given a standing ovation by a number of Vanderbilt fans remaining. 

It was almost unfathomable that this type of day would end that way for Goodin, but here he was; the hero. 

“I’m gonna dream about that hit,” Goodin’s dad said.

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