Vanderbilt Baseball Notebook: Building Momentum, Offensive Depth Shines, A Young Arm Emerges

After winning two straight games against the defending national champion LSU Tigers to open SEC play, Vanderbilt Baseball dropped its series finale Sunday, 16-9.

That shouldn’t take away from what was an indubitably successful weekend.

After battling injuries and a tough nonconference schedule, the Commodores entered SEC play dead last in the conference at 11-7 — an unfamiliar spot for the two-time national champions. Naturally, questions began to arise. Does Vanderbilt have enough pitching to maintain its two-decade-long postseason streak? Did the Commodores fail to make enough impact moves in the transfer portal? And, most of all, was the game beginning to pass Tim Corbin and his staff by?

Vanderbilt’s performance this weekend went a long way towards calming the nerves of those inquirers.

While it certainly wasn’t perfect, Vanderbilt’s offense, under first-year hitting coach Jason Esposito, showed why this team’s ceiling is still sky-high.

Take Friday night, for example.

Connor Fennell — who pitched better than his line would indicate — allowed seven earned runs in five innings against LSU’s offense. A season ago, that would’ve almost certainly meant a series-opening loss. This year, though, the Commodores’ offense matched the Tigers’, putting up 13 runs on 10 hits and 11 walks, capped off by a two-out, two-run walk-off home run deep into the Nashville night. It was more of the same Saturday, when Vanderbilt’s offense pushed 11 runs across to take the series. On Sunday — even when the Commodores went down 6-0 in the second inning — there was no panic. This offense knew it could erase that deficit. And erase it they did — even though it ultimately failed to hold onto the lead.

"We've been fighting and pushing really hard," Brennan Seiber said after Sunday's loss. "I think this team proved a lot to ourselves this weekend."

If the ‘Dores can sustain that kind of offensive production going forward, they’ll be able to sustain some drop-off on the pitching side until their injured arms make their way back.

Production Throughout the Order

33. That’s how many runs Vanderbilt scored against the LSU Tigers this weekend.

That lineup hasn’t taken its foot off the gas pedal much at all through 21 games this season. At times, though, it felt like that production was frontloaded from the middle of the Commodores’ batting order — Brodie Johnston and Braden Holcomb, namely. That wasn’t the case this weekend. Instead, the Commodores got their offensive production consistently up and down the lineup.

It started at the top with Rustan Rigdon, who Corbin shifted up into the leadoff spot against LSU. Rigdon proved his skipper right by reaching base eight times in 15 plate appearances over the weekend, putting the aforementioned middle of the order in a strong position to generate runs. He also swiped two bases and scored four runs, and Rigdon appears to be rediscovering his strengths while finding his stroke at the plate.

“[Rigdon] got off to a slow start,” Corbin said Friday. “It looked like the bat was laboring. I thought there was something wrong with him physically. I even asked him, ‘Do you feel okay? Do you think you have mono?’ But I think more than anything it was the fact that he got his confidence back with his hands and started whipping the bat again.”

Moving through the batting order, Vanderbilt’s trio of first basemen — Chris Maldonado, Tommy Goodin and Max Jensen — were clear standouts, combining for nine hits, four home runs and nine RBIs against LSU. What was once considered one of the Commodores' weakest positions has suddenly turned into a spot of strength. All three corner infielders have their strengths — Jensen the glove, Goodin the raw power, and Maldonado the experience and weak-side platoon flexibility — giving Corbin the ability to deploy each situationally. He did just that on Saturday, opting to pinch hit Maldonado for Jensen against a left-handed reliever in the fifth inning. The New Jersey native rewarded Corbin by clobbering a three-run home run over the center field wall.

And there go the Commodore bats once again.

Chris Maldonado, pinch hitting against a left-hander, drills a three-run homer to give the Commodores an 8-1 lead over LSU.

Vandy needed to make a statement this weekend and, so far, it has.pic.twitter.com/pSdavWHswl
— Dylan Tovitz (@dtovitz) March 15, 2026

“Maldo has been very consistent,” Corbin said. “He’s played good defense for us. And he swung the bat pretty well.”

As for Goodin, well, he made his presence known this weekend, slugging three home runs in two starts at DH. Where the left-hander lacks in defensive ability and bat-to-ball skills, he more than makes up for with his bat speed and ability to launch baseballs into orbit. Now with six home runs in 41 at-bats this season, he’s making it difficult for Corbin to keep him out of the lineup. For now, Jensen may be the odd man out.

Between Rigdon, the first-base trio, and youngsters Korbin Reynolds and Ryker Waite each holding their own at the plate, Vanderbilt’s lineup isn’t just thriving at the top. It’s filled with depth, too.

Sorting Out the Weekend Rotation

It was an up-and-down weekend for pitching coach Scott Brown’s starting rotation. Fennell battled without his best stuff on Friday, striking out eight over five innings but also allowing seven runs on ten hits. The former Dayton Flyer is prone to days like that when he’s not missing bats — especially against a potent LSU offense. Still, in a series that saw more pitchers struggle to throw strikes than not, Fennell’s relentless attack was refreshing. He’s not going anywhere in that Friday night role.

Nate Taylor — Corbin’s Sunday starter since the season began — had a far more concerning outing than Fennell, exiting after allowing six earned runs and recording just three outs in the weekend’s matinee. Taylor has struggled to find his footing since arriving at Vanderbilt by way of Athens, Georgia, pitching to a 7.45 ERA across five starts in the Black and Gold. Unlike Fennell, his problem has been attacking the zone. Taylor’s allowed 18 free passes between walks and hit batsmen in over 19.1 innings — something that’s led to constant traffic on the basepaths.

The right-hander has shown an ability to throw strikes in the past, but without top-notch stuff to consistently strand runners, he’s been an ineffective option starting games in 2026. With the emergence of freshman Wyatt Nadeau as a starting option, Taylor may be pushed to a bullpen role sooner rather than later.

Speaking of Nadeau, the tall right-hander was dominant in his first taste of SEC action, punching out 10 LSU hitters across 7 strong innings on Saturday. With a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and cranks up towards triple digits that he can command in the zone, Nadeau’s shown an ability to generate whiffs consistently to begin his collegiate career. His best weapon, though, is a low 90s death ball slider that tunnels well with the heater before completely dropping off the shelf — just watch what it did to LSU standout Derek Curiel in the first inning of Saturday’s contest.

Nadeau strikes out the side in the first ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/Ys8tUqavqI
— Vanderbilt Baseball (@VandyBoys) March 15, 2026

“We knew he was going to be good,” Seiber said after the game. “But I think he’s done even better than anyone could have hoped. We’re really stoked that he’s moving to the weekend rotation, and I think he’s going to give us a chance to win a lot of games.”

With Austin Nye’s return to the rotation potentially on the horizon, it’s going to be difficult to take Nadeau out of the rotation. At the very least, the Maine native’s emergence eases the pressure on Nye to rush his way back to the mound. If Nye remains sidelined, Seiber appears to be a strong candidate to contend for a starting role. The sinker-baller mowed down Tiger hitters on Sunday after Taylor’s early exit, throwing five no-hit innings and single-handedly keeping Vanderbilt in the game. Even though he faltered in the seventh and ultimately exited with three earned runs on his ledger, Seiber’s certainly an unsung hero of the weekend.

With the return of some key arms potentially on the horizon, the state of the pitching staff looks significantly less dire than it did just a few days ago — even with the bullpen’s struggles this weekend.

Stacking Wins

Vanderbilt needed a weekend like this — not necessarily because it was playing bad baseball, but because it had dug itself into a bit of a hole in the SEC standings. Unlike last season — when the Commodores were the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament but were generally unrecognized as the nation’s best team — this year’s squad is better than their record may say. If you didn’t believe that before, this weekend against the defending national champions showed it.

Questions remain, of course. Corbin was vague after Sunday’s game regarding the status of his injured arms. Even when healthy, the bullpen has inspired little confidence in its ability to get hitters out. The effects of that were seen in the series finale, when the Commodores’ pitching let up 16 runs.

Vanderbilt hosts Indiana on Tuesday before heading to Starkville next weekend to take on the No. 3 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs, who just dropped their series to Arkansas. That’s a big opportunity to build on this weekend’s momentum.