Vanderbilt baseball won a national championship with record-breaking performances, memorable victories and subtle decisions that guided the story of the 2019 season.
Here are some of the notable, and not-so-obvious, events that led to the national title:
May 13, 2018
Coach Tim Corbin has dinner with recruit Kumar Rocker and his parents, Tracy and Lu, at Calhoun’s restaurant in Knoxville after Vanderbilt’s game at Tennessee. Tracy is a Vols football assistant coach, but Lu and Corbin did most of the talking. She wanted full assurance that her son’s academics would remain a high priority while he learned to pitch at an elite level. Kumar, a projected first-round Major League Baseball Draft pick, said little until the end of the dinner when he promised Corbin he would be “one of the best teammates you’ll ever have” in the Vanderbilt program. Three weeks later, Rocker turned down multi-million-dollar offers in the draft topitch for the Commodores.
June 5, 2018
Ethan Paul and Stephen Scott were drafted later than they hoped, and other notable juniors were not drafted at all. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as five seniors returned for the largest senior class at Vanderbilt since 2008. It anchored an experienced lineup that seemed immune to adversity throughout the 2019 season.
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June 10, 2018
Vanderbilt suffered an 11-inning loss to Mississippi State, one win shy of making the College World Series. In the post-game press conference, Paul said, “Experiences like this go a long way in the future. This is going to be a positive thing in the end for us.” Corbin liked the thought so much that he featured it in a video message to the team in December before Christmas break, so they could return for the 2019 season with that perspective.
Summer 2018
First baseman Julian Infante, coming off a terrible slump as a junior, refocused his summer training with the help of former major-league star Raul Ibanez in Miami. Infante said, “A lot of it was mental, about getting your confidence back, getting away from baseball and getting a better perspective.” Infante bounced back with a career-high 12 home runs in 2019.
Oct. 20-21, 2018
Vanderbilt swept Oklahoma State in four seven-inning games in a fall scrimmage. Thirteen pitchers allowed Oklahoma State to hit for only a .132 average, and they struck out 39 batters in 28 innings. Rocker struck out eight consecutive batters in his unofficial debut. And some young pitchers – Tyler Brown, Ethan Smith and Hugh Fisher– showed signs that they would anchor a deep bullpen in the spring.
Feb. 15, 2019
After considering countless other options, Corbin decided to move Paul from second base to shortstop as a senior in the opening win over Virginia. It didn’t seem like an easy decision at the time. But Paul started all 71 games at shortstop and earned All-American accolades. Entering the postseason in May, Corbin said Paul might have been the one position player his team couldn’t afford to lose.
Feb. 17, 2019
Vanderbilt looked like a national title contender except for an early 10-2 loss to TCU, when Rocker allowed five runs in 1 ⅓ innings in his debut. Vanderbilt won only two of the first eight games in which Rocker pitched. But he turned the corner around midseason and won 10 of his last 11 starts, calling that TCU loss “the best thing that could’ve happened to me.”
March 15, 2019
Corbin took a chance in putting what he believed were “two outfielders” in his infield, starting Harrison Ray at second base and Austin Martin at third base for the first time in the same game in a 7-4 win over Texas A&M in the SEC opener. Corbin admitted losing sleep over the gamble, but it paid off. Vanderbilt had its second-best fielding team (98 percent) in program history. Ray and Martin were superb defensively, and Martin was an All-American.
April 9, 2019
With center fielders Cooper Davis and Pat DeMarco both nursing injuries, talented freshman Isaiah Thomas got his first career start against MTSU. He had a double, home run and four RBIs. It started an eight-game stretch in whichThomas hit .433 with three homers, 10 RBIs and eight runs scored. It wasn’t significant in the season, as DeMarco returned to full strength. But the fact that Thomas was a third-team player highlighted Vanderbilt’s unmatched depth.
April 25-27, 2019
Brown flew to Ohio for the heart surgery of his 1-year-old daughter, Isabella. It was her second surgery in eight months, and this one was successful. It wasthe only weekend series the closer didn’t pitch in a key late-inning role in four months. But he returned to the team with high spirits, pitched as well as any closer in college baseball and broke Vanderbilt’s single-season saves record (17).
May 5, 2019
Two of the program’s greatest records fell in the same game. J.J. Bleday hit his 23rd home run of the season, breaking Pedro Alvarez’s mark set in 2006. He finished the season with 27 homers to lead the nation. Senior Patrick Raby earned his 30th career victory, surpassing Jeff Peeples (1970-73) as the winningest pitcher in program history. Raby, a Knoxville native, finished with a 32-11 career record.
May 7, 2019
A.J. Franklin, a former Wilson Central standout, gets the only win of his career with a clutch long relief appearance in a 6-2 win over Louisville in the annual Battle of the Barrel rivalry game. The Commodores brimmed with confidence amid a run of winning 35 of their last 39 games, including two victories over Louisville in the College World Series.
May 22, 2019
Bleday, the SEC Player of the Year, went 5-for-5 in an 11-1 win over Auburn in the SEC Tournament with Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter watching at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Bleday earned SEC Tournament MVP honors, and the Marlins drafted Bleday No. 4 overall just 12 days later.
May 26, 2019
Philip Clarke, a former Christ Presbyterian Academy standout, hit the first pitch he saw for a walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to beat Ole Miss 11-10 inthe SEC title game. It completed a comeback from a 9-1 deficit and earned Vanderbilt its first SEC Tournament title since 2007.
May 31, 2019
Drake Fellows pitched the second complete game of his career to improve his record to 12-0, the best in Division I at the time, and beat Ohio State in the NCAA Nashville Regional. Before the ninth inning, Fellows told pitching coach Scott Brown that he wasn’t leaving the game until he finished it. He did, tossing a career-high 116 pitches to go the distance.
June 2, 2019
A year after his terrible slump, Infante went off in the Nashville Regional. He had three doubles, three home runs and five RBIs in three games to earn Nashville Regional MVP honors, including two homers in the regional title game against Indiana State.
June 3-5, 2019
Vanderbilt had 13 players selected in the MLB Draft, tying an SEC record. It’s just one of the many indicators that the Commodores touted one of the best collections of talent in recent memory in college baseball.
June 8, 2019
Rocker threw the first no-hitter in Super Regional history. He tossed a career-high 131 pitches and struck out 19 batters, breaking David Price’s postseason program record. It was only the eighth no-hitter in NCAA Tournament history and first overall for Vanderbilt since 1971. More importantly, Vanderbilt escaped elimination after an 18-5 loss to Duke the previous day.
More:Why Kumar Rocker, son of Vols coach Tracy Rocker, is at Vanderbilt and not UT
June 16, 2019
Martin hit two home runs in a 3-1 win over Louisville in the College World Series opener, including his first swing in Omaha. It marked the first time a Vanderbilt player hit multiple home runs in the same College World Series game.
June 19, 2019
Stephen Scott repeated Austin Martin’s feat, hitting two home runs in a 6-3 win over Mississippi State. Scott and Martin joined Connor Harrell as the only Vanderbilt players to hit multiple home runs in the College World Series. But Harrell did it in separate games, both against North Carolina in 2011.
June 21, 2019
After Louisville pitcher Luke Smith taunted Vanderbilt with some salty language after a strikeout in the eighth inning, the Commodores’ bats came alive. Paul and DeMarco hit RBI doubles in the ninth to rally for a 3-2 win over Louisville to advance to the national title series.
June 25, 2019
Rocker pitched a gem to beat Michigan 4-1 in an elimination game in Game 2 of the national title series. Rocker struck out 11, a Vanderbilt College World Series record. About a year after his pledge to Corbin, Rocker proved to be an invaluable teammate. He saved Vanderbilt’s season twice with two of the best postseason performances in program history and won the College World Series Most Outstanding Player award.
June 26, 2019
Mason Hickman, a former Pope John Paul II standout, ran his record to 9-0 with a clutch pitching performance. DeMarco hit a home run to spark the offense. And Vanderbilt celebrated its SEC-record 59th win and national championship with its first dog-pile of the season.
Reach Adam Sparks at asparks@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
