Video: Baseball Postgame Press Conference

By Travis Young

Here is Saturday's postgame press conference from Vanderbilt's 6-2 win over Florida State at the NCAA Super Regional in Tallahassee, Fla. Head Coach Tim Corbin, Sonny Gray, Grayson Garvin, Joe Loftus and Jason Esposito answered questions from the media.

(Part 1)


(Part 2)

Garvin Great in Post-Season

by Eric Jones

Maybe it was a good thing that Grayson Garvin didn't throw a pitch in anger before March 30. The seemingly innocuous scoreless inning that day against the Terriers with three strikeouts proved the lefty was ready to go. It was bigger still just four days later when Corey Williams took a ball off the kneecap versus Florida that required season-ending surgery while leaving the Commodores with just Richie Goodenow and freshman Sam Selman as the only other left-handed options for match-ups.

Rehabbing to be completely healthy proved to be a good thing, especially now in the post-season. In three post-season appearances including action today, G-Squared has been impressive allowing just three runs on 14 hits over 15.2 innings. The 1.72 ERA over that span, combined with 13 strikeouts have been huge.

The three-inning save today, Garvin's first as a Commodore, shows his versatility and is a glimpse that there may be even better things to come.

Tonight's starting pitchers are...

by SID

Sophomore southpaw Grayson Garvin will get the ball at the start of tonight's game against Louisville.

Garvin pitched 4.1 innings of relief against Illinois State in the opening game of the NCAA regional on June 4. He allowed one run on four hits with six strikeouts and a walk and threw 73 pitches in the Commodores 8-7 win in 13 innings.

Garvin missed the first month of the season due to injury and has come along nicely in his sophomore campaign. He has made 11 appearances, including one start against Austin Peay on April 27. He held the Govs scoreless on four hits in five innings of work with four strikeouts and a walk.

On the season he is 1-1 with a 1.33 ERA with 32 strikeouts and eight walks in 27.0 innings.

Because of his long relief outing on Friday, it's likely Garvin will be on some sort of pitch count. Every other active pitcher besides Jack Armstrong and Richie Goodenow is likely an option out of the bullpen as the season is on the line tonight for both team's.

Louisville will go with ace right-hander Thomas Royce, a third-team Collegiate Baseball All-American. He is 9-1 with a 2.91 ERA with 94 strikeouts and 25 walks in 99.0 innings.

Royse will be making his 16th start of the year and the first since facing West Virginia on May 26. He gave up four runs on seven hits in six innings with six strikeouts and no walks in an 11-4 win. He has not had a decision in his last four starts.

Ideally the Cardinals would have used him earlier, but an unknown ailment has kept him out thus far in the regional.

Video: Life in the bullpen

By Travis Young

With a stockpile of hard throwing righthanders and a pair of saavy lefthanders, the Vanderbilt bullpen has been a major strength to this year’s team. So out of curiosity, I caught up with a couple of relievers to see what it’s like to watch the game from the ‘pen and find out what really goes on down there.

Click below to watch the video.

Bullpen ready for regional play

by Eric Jones (Photo by Jimmy Jones)

Okay, maybe there isn't too much bright side from the SEC Tournament this year. Two losses in three games tends to put a damper on most fans' perspective and maybe comments to this post will tend towards the cynical. Still, the Commodore bullpen answered the call and appears ready to continue to be this team's major strength.

Five different Commodore relievers (Goodenow, Reid, Garvin, Clinard and Hayes) saw action over the three games; the results - two runs allowed (one earned) in 11 innings. That's a 0.82 ERA with nine strikeouts and just one walk allowed. Out of 41 total batters faced out of the bullpen, just 10 reached base and no inherited runners scored over the three games. Richie Goodenow was the only reliever to work in more than one game, keeping the Florida hitters in check for 3.2 innings of scoreless relief tonight after inducing an inning-ending double-play to get the hold in the Dores 2-0 shutout of Arkansas on opening night.

Look for the coaching staff to continue to use match-ups depending on the situation throughout the post-season. The logic is simple - if it's working, no need to change.