Vanderbilt Baseball Notebook: A Struggling Tertiary Starter, Offensive Silver Lining, A Critical Rubber Match Ahead – Sports Illustrated

NASHVILLE – Another conference series, another situation in which Vanderbilt suffers the consequences of pitching injuries and lack of pitching depth. Vanderbilt lost to No. 16 Oklahoma 13-11 in the second game of the weekend series.
The story of the night was Vanderbilt’s pitching and the continuing struggles that have persisted throughout the season. The Commodores have not been able to get the tertiary, or what normally is the third day starting pitcher figured out with the lack of pitching depth on the roster.
Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin turned to Brennan Seiber because of the experience he has as a third-year pitcher and the promise he has shown earlier this season. Ultimately, though, Seiber did not have his best Friday night.
“I felt it was the best situation for us at this time. Credit to him bouncing back after the first. But we’d like to get a little bit more length out of him,” Corbin said.
Seiber surrendered five runs in the first inning and put Vanderbilt in a 5-0 hole to start the game. The Commodores did punch back with eight runs in the first inning, but it did not matter in the end.
Vanderbilt pitchers Aiden Stillman and Nate Taylor came in for relief from the fourth through sixth innings, but it was more of the same of how Seiber began the game. Stillman gave up four unearned runs off a grand slam in the fourth inning while Taylor gave up a grand slam in the sixth inning, handing Oklahoma a 13-9 lead that Vanderbilt could not rebound from.
“Not pleasing. Not pleasing. We put ourselves in a tough situation. They extended innings, we just didn’t know how to stop them. Because of that, they got a big hit. Give them credit because they hit the ball well, but it’s just too many opportunities to give the opposition. They took advantage of it and they deserve to win,” Corbin said.
Offensively, runs were not that difficult to come by. Vanderbilt drew five walks and two hit by pitches in a first inning that yielded eight runs off just two hits.
Though it was not enough offense to win the series Friday, the Commodores still showed plenty of discipline and a good eye in the batter’s box. In total, Vanderbilt drew nine walks and was hit by a pitcher three times in the game. There were just one too many inconsistencies in terms of streaming hits together.
“We had some dry spells in there. Had some one-two-three innings and had some innings where we got a hit with one out, but we just couldn’t go back-to-back that way. That was tough, but that probably has something to do with them,” Corbin said.
Saturday’s series finale could not be more of a critical game for the Commodores. Vanderbilt has won each of its home series in conference play thus far and it would certainly like another one and it needs another one for resume purposes.
Vanderbilt needs to continue to make statements against conference foes that are among the better teams in the pitching category as well as needing to beat a ranked team to build the resume.
What makes the rubber match of the series of heightened importance is that Vanderbilt spends three of the next four conference series on the road. The Commodores travel to Kentucky, Alabama and Missouri over the next month while hosting a tough Texas team in two weeks.
Corbin knows Saturday is an important game, but he takes that same mentality into every game.
“Yeah, I mean, I look at it just every game’s critical. So we got to do a good job tomorrow and just play to the best of our ability and bounce back,” Corbin said.
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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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