For one elongated moment at Hawkins Field Tuesday night, everything felt right. The Commodores had just completed a 4-0 comeback against Louisville in the Battle of the Barrel in a 12-6 win. It was a night in which all the worries about the way this Commodores’ season has gone were swept under the rug.
But in reality, the night was just the first step of what could end up being a two or three-week process to clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament. After all, Vanderbilt is still 28-22 and its resume did not make a groundbreaking jump by beating Louisville. It was just one game in a crucial seven-game stretch to end the season.
Now, there are six games remaining in Vanderbilt’s regular season. A series at home against South Carolina awaits the Commodores next weekend before they travel to Hoover, Alabama for the SEC Baseball Tournament.
But first, Vanderbilt travels to Missouri for a weekend series that begins tonight. It may not be the most difficult of opponents to face at this time of year, but it is no less an all-important series. One that Vanderbilt has no choice but to take advantage of.
Anything other than sweeping the Tigers this weekend would be considered a disappointment.
The main focus of this weekend is not what Vanderbilt gains from beating Missouri. Rather, it is all about avoiding a bad loss or two that could stain the Commodores’ resume as they attempt to make their case for the NCAA Tournament selection committee.
There are two glaring numbers that show this is a must-sweep series. Firstly, Vanderbilt is taking on a 4-20 Missouri team. Missouri has been sitting at the very bottom of the SEC since conference play began back in mid-March. The Tigers have struggled all season and their worst-rated ERA and 14th-best batting average in the SEC show it.
But most of all is the RPI numbers. While Vanderbilt comes into the series ranked 68th in the RPI, Missouri is ranked 125th in the RPI.
That is the number that truly shows Vanderbilt has to go 3-0 this weekend or it may have to make up for it next weekend against South Carolina and in the conference tournament. Just as beating a team rated highly in the RPI can make up for a bad loss, a loss against a team that is low in the statistical category forces teams to make up for it with a strong win later on.
There is no telling what going 2-1 or even 1-2 this weekend would do to Vanderbilt’s RPI, but it certainly would not help it. Going 3-0 against Missouri likely is not going to jump Vanderbilt up far, but it definitely would not fall.
That should be goal of Vanderbilt this weekend. It cannot make things harder on itself as talk of the postseason continues to ramp up. As long as it takes care of business this weekend, the Commodores move another step closer to extending the regional streak.
Sweeping any team in conference is never an easy task. It may feel impossible in some cases, but not in Vanderbilt’s case this weekend. While sweeping the weekend does feel mandatory, it also feels very realistic. Missouri has been swept in three of the past four weekends. Vanderbilt needs to make it four of five weekends.
Vanderbilt could perhaps be the most fascinating case of a bubble team in recent memory in terms of its combination of conference record and RPI ranking. Vanderbilt cannot control how it is perceived by the selection committee, but it can control its effort and willingness to win games before the committee releases the bracket.
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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.
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