Vanderbilt To Play Stanford In College World Series Elimination Game

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Kumar Rocker. Photo: Courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics

The Vanderbilt baseball team has one more shot to stay in the College World Series against Stanford on Wednesday, June 23 and they won’t have either Jack Leiter or Kumar Rocker on the mound.

Tonight’s game (June 22) will be the first time Vanderbilt faces elimination during the postseason. The Commodores lost 1-0 to NC State with Leiter pitching on Monday, June 21. Leiter pitched 8 innings with only four hits, one run on a solo home run, and 15 strikeouts, arguably one of his best performances of the year. However, Vandy’s offense failed to pull anything together NC States’s Sam Highfill who pitched 7.1 scoreless innings and struck out seven.

Vanderbilt will need offensive power in tonight’s game if they want a chance to face the Wolfpack again on Friday, June 25. They will need help from freshman Enrique Bradfield Jr. who went 0-4 during Monday’s game. Bradfield currently sports a batting average of .348 and was recently named a finalist for the NCAA Division I Gold Glove Team. The Commodores will also need the bat of junior Dominic Keegan who leads the team in batting average at .358, 55 RBI’s 55, and a .656 slugging percentage. The entire team went 2-27 and was struck-out nine times against the Wolfpack’s pitching.

Stanford is having one of their best seasons and are coming off an elimination game against Arizona on Monday where they won 14-5 after scoring seven runs in the 3rd inning. Stanford has a record of 39-1, but also lost to the Wolfpack 10-4 on Saturday, June 19.

One of the biggest questions for tonight’s game, though, is who will be starting on the mound for the Commodores?

The teams best options are either Christian Little or Patrick Reilly. Little currently has an ERA of 5.02 in 12 appearances and nine starts. Among the pitching staff for the Commodores, he has struck-out some of the fewest batters, only striking out a total of 44, while his opposing batting average sits at .236. Little’s last outing was on May 26 against Ole Miss where he gave up one run on three hits in 5.1 innings pitched. Reilly, on the other hand, sports a .192 opposing batting average while his ERA, sitting at 4.89, is still on the higher side. Reilly has struck-out 52 batters in 15 appearances and seven starts. His most recent start was on June 6 against Georgia Tech where he struggled to pitch past the fourth inning and gave up six runs, four of which were earned runs, striking out six.

Nick Maldonado pitched 44.2 innings this season in 26 appearances with no starts, but has an ERA at 2.42 and an opposing batting average of .163 could also see the mound tonight. Another option for Vandy could also be Thomas Shultz, who sports a 4.19 ERA and a 2.08 opposing batting average in 13 appearances and nine starts. However, nothing has been confirmed yet by head coach Patrick Corbin.

The Commodores will take the field tonight in Omaha at 7 p.m. CST. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

Steven Boero
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