Why Tim Corbin Believes Tyler Baird Has Taken Step Forward

NASHVILLE—Tyler Baird had earned this, his chance.

The Vanderbilt freshman was toeing the rubber in Starkville, Mississippi, with an opportunity to show that he was good enough to stick in Vanderbilt’s Sunday starter role. Baird had worn a number of hats prior to that day, but a number of injuries and what he’d shown finally gave him the chance to cement himself in this role.

That wasn’t happening just yet, though. Clearly.

Baird exited that start in Starkville without recording an out and didn’t appear to be ready for all the magnitude that came with taking the bump first in an SEC game. It wasn’t as if that was it for Baird, but it was a major setback. It indicated that he still had room to go before finding his way back on the mound in a similar situation. He appeared to believe he was ready, but a sobering reality struck.

Vanderbilt could’ve reacted to that supposed reality by pulling some responsibility from Baird or giving him time to think about what he’ll have to do better moving forward. Not this Vanderbilt staff, though.

Commodores coach Tim Corbin put Baird right back out there two days later in Vanderbilt’s midweek win over Tennessee Tech. In hindsight, the move appears to be monumental for Baird—who was Vanderbilt’s unsung hero in its Saturday win over Tennessee.

“I think Tuesday's game probably helped him,” Corbin said. “It's just like a small car accident. I just remember getting one of myself, my dad made me drive right away.  It was almost like beginning a confidence. That's kind of what it is with pitching, too. It's like when a guy has a bad outing and you want to get look for opportunities to get him out there as quickly as possible and that's what we did Tuesday.”

The result of Corbin and Vanderbilt pitching coach Scott Brown’s insistence on throwing Baird right away was five innings of scoreless, two-hit baseball from the freshman right hander.

Had Vanderbilt not gotten what it did out of Baird in its 16-inning Saturday affair, it likely would’ve dropped that outing and allowed Tennessee to tie the series. Baird was the steady hand that this Vanderbilt team needed desperately in that moment.

Baird had never been in a position with that kind of leverage against that type of opponent. He could’ve faltered under the temperature of the moment. That wasn’t Baird on Saturday, though.

Instead, he got to deliver answers like this in his postgame press conference.

“It was good to get out there and beat those guys eventually, and it was a good one,” Baird said. “It’s definitely. You can feel it for sure, but at the end of the day, we value all the jerseys the same. Those guys are a little different, but it's good to beat them and, you know, just prepare every day the same way and go out there and have the same mindset.”

Baird hadn’t participated in a postgame press conference yet, but he clearly internalized some of Corbin’s media training as he addressed the group on hand. The Vanderbilt freshman was polite, politically correct and mature. Baird appears to have a number of the boxes checked that successful Vanderbilt pitchers often have under Corbin.

His composure appears to be one of a few things prompting Corbin to believe that he has something here.

“I thought Baird came into his own,” Corbin said on Saturday. “Brownie got him right back on track, and I knew Brownie would because told me he was going to. But the kid has to do the work, and he did.”