Pitching Powered Commodores in 2020 and Should Again Next Season
We will never know how the 2020 college baseball season would have played out thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that shut down most of the country and ended baseball abruptly, but one thing is for certain, the Vanderbilt Commodores pitching staff was working on something special.
A closer look at the stats the Commodores staff had put together prior to the stoppage would suggest that the defending College World Series champs would have had a better than average chance of returning to Omaha to defend that title.
Here are some of the numbers compiled by Vanderbilt pitchers in very limited work on the shortened season.
- True freshmen pitchers registered a 1.44 ERA alongside an 84-21 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 68.2 innings. Sam Hliboki did not allow a run in 15.2 innings while Thomas Schultz (13.2 innings) and Michael Doolin (10.1 innings) permitted just one.
- Vanderbilt pitching was among the best in the country to start the season. The staff led the nation with a 1.84 ERA and was third in hits allowed per nine innings (5.51).
- Commodore starters went 10-3 with a 1.89 ERA while limiting opponents to a .167 average. In 90.1 innings, the group registered a 127-38 strikeout-to-walk ratio. At home, starters went 9-1 with a 1.44 ERA in 62.1 innings.
- Friday starter Mason Hickman (2-0) was lights out, limiting opponents to one earned run in 18.2 innings while finishing with a 0.48 ERA. Ethan Smith (3-0) led Vanderbilt in wins and registered a 1.42 ERA. Jack Leiter (2-0) touted a 1.72 ERA in 15.2 innings and Kumar Rocker (2-1) finished with a 1.80 ERA, permitting three runs in 15 innings.
- Vanderbilt pitching allowed three-or-fewer runs in 14 of the last 15 games including four straight.
There's no guarantee those numbers would have continued at that pace throughout the remainder of the season, especially considering the strength of opponents in conference play, but the old baseball adage that good pitching beats good hitting most of the time could certainly apply here.
Baseball Hall of Famer and former Atlanta Braves star, Greg Maddux described his approach tp picthing like this.
"I try to do two things: locate my fastball and change speeds. That's it. I try to keep as simple as possible. I just throw my fastball (to) both sides of the plate and change speed every now and then. There is no special food or anything like that, I just try to make quality pitches and try to be prepared each time I go out there."
While the Commodores staff might not have followed Maddux philosophy specifically, what they did on the mound in 2020 looked very similar, but with some guys having better fastballs than the former big leaguer.
The good news is almost all of those arms will be returning next season along with some more new arms, meaning the Commodores 2021 staff should be better than most once again.
