Vanderbilt Baseball Player Named Semifinalist for National Award: The Anchor

One Vanderbilt baseball player could win a national college baseball award by the end of this season.

Per a media release Tuesday, Vanderbilt shortstop Ryker Waite has been named a semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award, which goes to the best shortstop in college baseball. Waite is one of 50 semifinalists for the award.

Waite has had a much increased role in Vanderbilt’s lineup this season as a sophomore and has made a big impact on the Commodores’ offense this season. After playing in just eight games as a freshman, Waite is hitting .301 with five home runs this season. He also has drawn the most walks on the second and is second on the team in stolen bases with nine.

Waite has also made a difference on a Vanderbilt defense that has turned the most double plays in the SEC this season. Wait has saved 8.58 runs according to D1Baseball statistics, which is 13th-best in the country.

On the whole Vanderbilt has a 25-17 record going into this weekend’s series against Texas at home. The Commodores are on the outside of the bubble looking into the NCAA Tournament picture, but this series against the Longhorns can start to shift the conversation surrounding Vanderbilt in a positive direction.

Waite has been a regularly-productive piece on a Vanderbilt offense that has been lethal all season.

Countdown to Vanderbilt’s 2026 Football Season

135 days

The Anchor: Thursday, April 23, 2026

Since November, Vanderbilt has extended four coaches: football’s Clark Lea, men’s basketball’s Mark Byington, soccer’s Darren Ambrose and now women basketball’s Shea Ralph. It speaks volumes to not just the job of the coaches at Vandy, but also what AD Candice Storey Lee has done.

Former Vanderbilt men’s basketball player George Kimble III committed to Auburn. Kimble III did not play the 2025-2026 season due to an injury he suffered at Eastern Kentucky at the end of the 2024-2025 season.

CBS Sports released their way too early top 25 rankings for the next women’s college basketball season. In the rankings, the outlet has Vanderbilt ranked No. 9.

Wednesday’s Commodores Results

Vanderbilt men’s golf is in X place after the first day of the SEC Championships.

Thursday’s Commodores Schedule

There are no games played today.

Commodores Quote of The Day

[On Vanderbilt giving up five runs in the ninth inning to Arkansas in 2019, the year Vanderbilt won its second national championship:] “I should be fired.”
Tim Corbin

We’ll Leave You With This…

Rigdon sends us home in the eighth! pic.twitter.com/Sib2EFZZvZ
— Vanderbilt Baseball (@VandyBoys) April 22, 2026

Follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Threads and Blue Sky for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google