The regional streak is in extremely grave danger now.
Vanderbilt baseball lost to Missouri 8-7 in the 10th in the series opener Saturday afternoon after what was a chaotic Friday night. After nearly 23 hours after the originally scheduled first pitch for the first game of the series, Missouri walked off the Commodores with a single up the middle to complete what was an epic comeback for Missouri, but the worst loss of the season for Vanderbilt.
The drama all started in the ninth inning after midnight last night. Trailing 7-6, Vanderbilt put runners on second and first base with two outs after Brodie Johnston drew a walk. Then, Braden Holcomb walked up to the plate. In a 0-1 count, Holcomb hit a ball deep to right field for what maybe was a home run, but nobody could prove it due to the dense fog that covered the field.
The distance tracker read 379 feet with an exit velocity of 108 miles per hour. If those numbers are accurate, that would have been a home run based off the field dimensions in right field. For a moment, Vanderbilt thought it had taken a 9-7 lead. Holcomb certainly believed so.
But after long conversations between the umpires, the play was ultimately ruled as a ground-rule double instead of a home run, which tied the game at 7-7 that concluded Saturday afternoon.
Vanderbilt fans are justified to complain about what took place Friday night. Given the ball tracking data and the positioning of Missouri’s baseball field, all signs pointed to a three-run home run rather than a ground-rule double.
However, do not let the drama last night sweep what happened in the eighth inning under the rug. Make no mistake about it: this game was an epic collapse from Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt entered the bottom half of the eighth up 6-1. The Commodores were on cruise control the whole night and it was led by a fantastic and vintage start from Connor Fennell. Fennell threw 107 pitches and seven innings, giving up five hits and just one run while striking out eight batters.
Perhaps the coaching staff decided to take a new approach to managing Fennell after pulling him 5.1 innings into the game with just 70 pitches against Alabama a week ago. If so, it definitely worked.
But the bullpen ruined what was a great outing and a clean game from the Commodores. Luke Guth came out of the bullpen first and allowed six runs on five hits with just one out in the inning. Matthew Shorey was on the mound when Missouri took a 7-6 lead, but the run was credited to Guth.
All of the sudden what should have been a game that kept Vanderbilt on the track to get back to the heart of the bubble turned into a nightmare.
Should Vanderbilt have been up 9-7 before the game resumed today? There is a strong case for that. But at the end of the day, the Commodores only have themselves to blame. Blowing a 6-1 lead to the team that has been at the bottom of the SEC all season is about as disastrous of a loss that a bubble team can have at this point in the season.
And now, Vanderbilt has to deal with the consequences of it. Even if Vanderbilt were to win out before the SEC Tournament, the best it can do is 15-15 in the SEC. With Missouri being 4-20 in the SEC and being 125th in the RPI entering the series, this was a must sweep series. In fact, Vanderbilt likely needed to win its final six games to minimize anxiety as much as it could for the NCAA Tournament Selection Show.
The Commodores have to turn the page quickly with the second game of the series starting shortly, but this loss could be the nail in the coffin to Vanderbilt’s regional streak.
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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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