Vanderbilt Baseball Offense Unable to Come Up Big in Series Loss

NASHVILLE – Runs were on the board, but the hits were not up to par for Vanderbilt baseball Saturday. The Commodores fell 6-5 to No. 16 Oklahoma in a rubber match that resulted in Vanderbilt’s second consecutive SEC series loss and its first home SEC series loss.

The best part of Vanderbilt’s team did not perform the way it has for most of the season. Despite the five runs it scored, Vanderbilt only finished the game with three hits and did not get its first hit of the game until the fifth inning.

But perhaps most concerning of all was the strikeout numbers. Vanderbilt struck out 14 times as a team and had five guys strikeout multiple times in the game. The discipline at the plate was not what it has been for most of the season. Part of that though, is a credit to the Oklahoma pitching staff.

“I think you got to give their pitching credit. There’s a reason why that happens. Those are good arms out there. Bixby probably threw as good as he has, but at the same time I don’t really think we had control of our at-bats throughout the game,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said.

Oklahoma relief pitcher Mason Bixby was giving Vanderbilt’s batters fits for the entire 2.1 innings he was on the mound. Bixby struck out five Commodores and did not allow one of the most potent SEC offenses to get a hit.

Corbin felt he saw his team chase too many pitches throughout the game while feeling his guys were “anxious” in their at-bats and that Vanderbilt’s ultimate downfall was not being able to get into hitter counts at the plate as often as they are used to.

“If you can take a pitch in an at-bat, oftentimes there’s a lot to do with count leverage obviously. And count leverage gives you better opportunities to get on base, but we didn’t have that. That was I think the issue. We just didn’t really have good command of our at-bats because that’s a lot of empty outcomes,” Corbin said.

Thinking big picture, the offense has been the aspect of this Vanderbilt team that has led the way throughout the whole season. So much so to the point where Vanderbilt has relied on their bats to win games too heavily at times.

Needing to outscore the opponent in weekend series is certainly not how any team wants to win games, nor is it a sustainable method of winning. It eventually gets to a point where the pitching has to step up and start being the catalysts for a series win, but so far that has not been the case. And because of that, it could create pressure for the offense.

In terms of whether there is too much pressure on the offense right now, Corbin is not entirely sure what to make of it.

“I can’t answer that. I’m sure the want to do something is very strong. But as I said, that might be part of it. Whitcomb, he got up to the plate and everyone felt good about him, including himself. It just didn’t happen. Maldo, same thing. But realistically, it shouldn’t come down - sometimes it does - but it shouldn’t come down to those two at-bats,” Corbin said. “I think throughout the day we kind of made our own mess. We just didn’t do enough to produce runs.”

Now, it is back to the drawing board for Vanderbilt as it has a road series in three of the next four weeks. The Commodores are going to see good pitching over the next month, including Texas and Alabama. It is a matter of how this offense is able to generate hits in the big moments.

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