It's Getting Late Pretty Early For Vanderbilt Baseball. Column
NASHVILLE—The section would be entirely empty by the time a middle-aged man sitting at the far end of the row next to the Vanderbilt dugout left the seat he was occupying. He didn’t appear to have any intentions of leaving anytime soon, though. He still had too much to process.
As Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin spoke to his team in the dugout, the fan stared out at the field and shook his head because of what had just happened. He almost encapsulated the mood of all the fans in attendance at Hawkins Field as he did so.
Down on the field, Corbin addressed the team like he addressed the media; openly and somberly. He couldn’t quite understand why this ended the way it did, with a 6-5 Oklahoma win. He knew the basic, fundamental reasons. He still couldn’t fully wrap his mind around what this entailed, though.
“I couldn't have foreseen this happening,” Corbin said. ”I thought we were in a pretty good place, actually, after last night. Last night was tough us. They came back and I thought, in the classroom and on the field, the preparation was really solid and really good.”
It wasn’t enough, though. Vanderbilt struck out 14 times, didn’t score after the fifth inning and stranded a runner on second base to end the game. Corbin was convinced that the runner would be making his way home and tying the game. No such luck for this Vanderbilt team, though.
Saturday was just another brutal day for this program in a season that’s been full of them thus far.
Vanderbilt is 21-16 overall, 7-8 in SEC play, has lost its last two series and has lost three of its last four series. It’s yet to win a series away from Hawkins Field and is 2-10 overall away from home. Three of Vanderbilt’s five remaining series will come on the road. Most importantly, if the season ended today this group would be out of the NCAA Tournament. Its streak would be over.
With Saturday’s loss, Vanderbilt’s margins got significantly smaller in regard to it keeping that streak alive. This team has at least 16 games left to play and needs to win at least eight of them to stay alive. It will likely get a few in the final weeks against South Carolina and Missouri, but it’s got to grind out a few other series.
Everything is still possible for this Vanderbilt team, but nothing is a given. Especially after what happened over the weekend.
“We got a challenge ahead of us with more games on the road and we're just going to have to keep improving,” Corbin said. “We have to dig our way through this a little bit. That's okay. We're gonna find out over time what we’re made of. And sometimes these stretches right here–I remember 2012, we were well below 500 at this point right now, and I couldn’t have told you that at the end of year, we were going to win a national championship. We just grew. So, anything can happen.”
After Vanderbilt fell below .500 in league play on Saturday, something has to happen for it. Its pitching has to become more reliable. Its lineup has to have less pressure on it. In reality, this group may just be what it is and have to find ways to win in spite of its weaknesses down the stretch.
Corbin’s postgame availability didn’t indicate that he believes this group is dead or anything close to it, but it was among the first times in the past few seasons that he’s taken time after losses to acknowledge a problem and discuss why there is one. He’s often reserved that for postseason press conferences.
Today, though, Corbin took the walk out to the left field corner after Vanderbilt’s loss and appeared to be intent on performing a state of the union in regard to Vanderbilt’s season as a whole.Corbin needed to address this and where it’s all heading, and he did. He may not have had all the answers, but he considered everything and opened up about his side of this brutal season. By the time it was over, he went for eight minutes and 42 seconds before walking off with a “thanks, gang.”
Perhaps that was because he knows he can’t hold off on addressing the elephant in the room any longer.
“We’ve got to internalize it and we’re just gonna get better,” Corbin said. “We're just going to have to keep improving. I have to dig our way through this a little bit. That's okay. We're gonna find out over time, what you're made of. And sometimes these stretches right here, I remember 2012, we were well below .500 at this point right now, and I couldn't have told before the end of year, we were going to win a national championship. We just grew. So, you know, anything can happen. There's a lot of growth that takes place either way.”
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_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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