Vanderbilt Pitcher Gets Preseason Honors: The Anchor
There is under one month until the college baseball season begins and preseason honors are starting to roll in as Vanderbilt already has one player named to a preseason honor.
Vanderbilt pitcher Connor Fennell was named to preseason Third Team All-America by D1 Baseball Tuesday afternoon. Fennell could be perhaps Vanderbilt’s most valuable pitcher going into the 2026 season. His sophomore season, Fennell finished with a 6-0 record with a 2.53 ERA with two saves. Fennell also had 84 strikeouts and allowed batters to hit just .174 against him in 53.1 innings.
A season ago, Fennell earned Third Team All-America honors from the NCBWA and Second Team All-Region from the ABCA.
Fennell’s speciality is how quick he works through batters. In a world of baseball with the pitch clock, Fennell wastes no time on the mound and is able to move through pitches with plenty of time still left on the pitch clock.
Vanderbilt will enter the 2026 season ranked No. 23 in the country, according to D1 Baseball as the Commodores begin the new campaign in Texas for the Shriner’s Children’s College Showdown Feb, 13-15. Vanderbilt will take TCU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State in Arlington, starting with the Horned Frogs at 3 p.m. CT on Feb, 13.
Today’s Commodores Schedule
No. 5 Vanderbilt women’s basketball vs. Auburn, 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.
Yesterday’s Commodores Results Today
There were no games scheduled yesterday
Did You Notice?
Vanderbilt women’s basketball has scheduled a future home-and-home with UConn starting in the 2027-2028 season. Vanderbilt will go up to Storrs, Connecticut in the 2027-2028 season before UConn visits Memorial Gymnasium the following year.
Vanderbilt and UConn are the only remaining undefeated teams left in women’s college basketball. The Commodores are led by head coach Shea Ralph and have tore through a majority of their competition this season, including beating No. 7 Michigan 72-69 on Monday.
Countdown to Vanderbilt’s 2026 Baseball Season Opener
22 days
Commodores Quote of The Day
“All the SEC and OVC schools recruited me for football. I liked Coach (Steve) Sloan at Vanderbilt and I always wanted to be a teacher and a coach. At that time George Peabody School for Teachers was one of the most renowned colleges for teachers in the United States. That helped persuade me to play football at Vanderbilt. My second choice at the time was Kentucky. Alabama and Tennessee also recruited me, but I did not think I would fit into their programs.”Dennis Harrison
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.