Day of drama for Vanderbilt

by David Rutz (Photo by John Russell)

Do you like movies?

If you do, you couldn't have done better than the nerve-wracking tension of Vanderbilt's 3-2 win over Louisville on Monday to claim the NCAA Regional championship.

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Goodenow exeeds everyone's expectations

By David Rutz (AP Photo - Ed Reinke)

Junior left-hander Richie Goodenow was given quite an assignment for his second career start with the Commodores: hold down the powerful Louisville offense.

Vanderbilt's season depended on it.

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Commodores have been here before

by David Rutz

Vanderbilt finds itself in a familiar position at the Louisville Regional after Saturday's 7-1 loss: looking up. It will take three wins in two days to get to a Super Regional now, but the Commodores had their backs against the wall last season and forced a championship game against Louisville. Read More

David Rutz: Bullpen provides extra relief

by David Rutz (Photo by John Russell)

In a tense NCAA Regional contest that lasted nearly five hours, the relievers kept Vanderbilt players and fans, well, relieved. Read More

Commodores used to FieldTurf

By David Rutz

Vanderbilt’s seen plenty of the FieldTurf of Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium, having played there at last year’s NCAA Regional as well as during the 2009 regular season. The synthetic fielding surface also is used by the Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays in Major League Baseball, as well as Louisville’s football team at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

The Commodores have played on the surface back home too.

“Not too big a deal, really,” said Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin. “We go on the turf quite a bit in the (John Rich practice field) because of the amount of rainy days that we have from January to February. We may have practiced on that field 10 times, taken batting practice on there, taken tons of ground balls.”

That particular aspect of the playing surface proves useful for infielders who are less likely to have to deal with bad hops. Skip, skip and it’s in the glove.

“You get much more true hops, so it’s not a bad thing,” said second baseman Anthony Gomez. “Just sliding’s a little different.”

That and the temperature aspect. The playing surface at Jim Patterson gets much hotter than natural grass like the Commodores enjoy at Hawkins Field.

The temperature’s expected to reach 87 degrees today in Louisville and the playing surface is at nearly 100 degrees right now.

“You can even see the heat rising off the turf,” Gomez noted during Thursday’s practice.

Patience is a virtue

by Barca Blog

David Rutz of VUcommodores.com takes a closer look at Vanderbilt's offensive strategy under first-year assistant coach Josh Holliday. Patience under Holliday pays off

And since we're on the topic, why not take the "Holliday" road to Omaha?

Rutz: Opening game crucial for Dores

by Barca Blog (Photo by John Russell)

How important is it to win the first game of an NCAA Regional?

David Rutz came up with this statistic:

Last season, every team that advanced to the Super Regional won its opening game. In the past five tournaments, the 80 teams to move on to Super Regionals have gone 74-6 in such contests.

Read more on the topic in Rutz's latest article on VUcommodores.com. Click Here

How to? with Andrew Giobbi

In David Rutz's new video series titled "How to?," Commodore student-athletes will take you through one of the challenges of their sport.

In today's inaugural edition, senior catcher Andrew Giobbi of the Vanderbilt baseball team shows us how to hit a nasty curveball and tells us the longest he's ever crushed one.

Vierling... front and center

David Rutz will have a feature on each of Vanderbilt's three captains over the next week on VUcommodores.com. His first spotlight is on the only returning captain, senior center Bradley Vierling. Read the complete story here.

Younger players say they need to stay loose

by David Rutz - NCAA tournament baseball is intense, with entire seasons hanging on every at-bat and every inning. But for the Commodores to advance to their first Super Regional in five years, they think they just need to chill.

With a young line-up in which many of the hitters will be seeing their first NCAA action in the Louisville Regional, that's the mindset that Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin wants to see, the same mindset that propelled his team into the SEC championship game.

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Vandy doesn't like backing in

By David Rutz - The Commodores clinched the final spot in the SEC Tournament Saturday, but they were less than pleased that it was courtesy of a Florida victory over Kentucky, not because of them defeating visiting Tennessee.

A 9-7 loss on a long day at Hawkins Field, where Vanderbilt held leads at 4-0 and 7-4 but couldn't make them hold up, completed a three-game sweep by Tennessee, its first of the Black and Gold since 2000.

Unbeknownst to the Commodores, Florida finished off a 13-9 victory just a few minutes before Brian Harris popped out to finish the game in the bottom of the 10th inning.

"I thought we had to win this game to be in there," said senior Jonathan White. "Definitely disappointing. (That) UT could come here and take three from us on our home field doesn't sit well with anyone right now."

Vanderbilt entered the final two games of the series just needing one more win to assure itself a position. Head coach Tim Corbin said the Kentucky game was the last thing on his mind and the only focus of him and his players was controlling their own destinies.

"We didn't play winning baseball," Corbin said. "We came in (this series) needing to win one and that's kind of how we played. Tight baseball, not fun baseball, I'll tell you that."

He was able to put things in perspective though.

"We're in the tournament, everyone's 0-0," Corbin said. "Sleep this one off, pound myself in the head, and we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Kentucky loses, Vanderbilt clinches spot in SEC Tournament

By David Rutz - We're in extra innings here at Hawkins Field for the second straight game, but the good news for the Commodores is that they clinched the 8th spot in the SEC Tournament after Kentucky lost 13-9 at Florida.

Vanderbilt will face top-seeded LSU Wednesday afternoon in the first round in Hoover, Alabama.

Another close loss for Vandy

By David Rutz - Vanderbilt suffered another tough loss to Tennessee Friday night, falling in extra innings, 7-6. Kentucky defeated Florida 8-7 to get within half a game of the Commodores in the SEC standings and prevent Vanderbilt from clinching the final spot in the SEC Tournament.

The Commodores appeared poised for a huge come-from-behind win thanks to senior Jonathan White, who hit a two-run single with the bases loaded in the eighth to put Vanderbilt up 6-5 and cap a four-run rally.

The Volunteers rallied with a single run in the ninth, but the Commodores had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the inning to win it, putting runners on second and third with one out. Aaron Westlake struck out though, and after Andrew Giobbi walked on four pitches to load the bases, Joe Loftus was fanned to end the threat. In the 10th, Tennessee pushed across the eventual winning run on a chopper that bounced into left field, and Vanderbilt went in order in its turn at bat to end the ballgame.

"It's the way it goes," said Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin. "That'll be the story of the game. Not being able to put the ball in play with people at third base six different times, not being able to close out a game. It was there for the taking."

The Commodores can still ensure themselves a spot in the tournament with a victory tomorrow. Corbin doesn't plan on making any adjustments, not after two straight games that have barely slipped through his team's fingers.

"Got to win, that's all there is to it,"Corbin said. "We've got what we've got on the field. All we have to do is try and win a baseball game, that's it."

Commodores can't capitalize on ninth-inning opportunity

by David Rutz - Vanderbilt loaded the bases without getting the ball out of the infield in the bottom of the ninth against Tennessee but couldn't get the big hit to rally back, and the Volunteers won 8-6, just their second win in their last 10 games against the Commodores (31-22, 12-15 Southeastern Conference).

A bunt single by Aaron Westlake followed infield hits by Steven Liddle and Curt Casali to load the bases and chase Tennessee starter Nick Hernandez. Matt Ramsey replaced him and got Andrew Giobbi to fly out to shallow center and then struck out Jason Esposito. Jonathan White hit a fly ball to deep left but it was caught at the warning track to end the game.

"Ramsey's a hard-throwing kid, a lot of adrenaline going," said coach Tim Corbin. "I thought Johnny White's (hit) had enough, (but) not enough leg to get there."

Westlake says it was more the Commodores not executing than really being fooled by the Volunteers (24-29, 9-19).

"We're better than that as a team," Westlake said. "If there's a guy on third base with less than two out, we should be able to do our job and get him in, and we just didn't do that tonight."

Westlake expects Vanderbilt to make adjustments and come out in Friday's game with a better mindset at the plate in clutch situations.

"We'll have to come out tomorrow with a better approach, and I think we'll do that," he said.