Vanderbilt Baseball started its 2026 season off by traveling to Texas to participate in the 2026 Shriner Children’s College Showdown. The Commodores faced three opponents in No. 10 TCU, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Overall, the VandyBoys finished 1-2, suffering losses to TCU and Oklahoma State while run-ruling Texas Tech. This was the worst opening weekend result for the ‘Dores since the 2021-22 season, when they fell to a familiar opponent in Oklahoma State in Nashville two games to one.  

This weekend displayed some surprising developments in areas of question while revealing potential problems in typically sound areas for the program. The VandyBoys will return to West End motivated for a better result in their five contests at home this week. 

Three up  

Starters show up 

While Vanderbilt’s starting rotation of Connor Fennell, Austin Nye and Nate Taylor certainly was not in mid-season form, the three still had impressive outings and put their team in a position to win their games.  

Fennell looked uneasy at the beginning of his start against TCU, where he gave up a solo shot. But after that, he settled in nicely. The righty ended his day allowing two hits and two runs across 5.1 innings of work while striking out seven of the first eight batters faced. Fennell was up to the low-90s with his fastball, which improved from last year. Nye, the Saturday starter, was equally impressive. In his first start as a weekend guy, the California native finished with a final line of four innings pitched, in which he allowed two hits and one run while striking out six and walking just two. Even more impressive was his use of more breaking pitches than last season, when he primarily relied on his four-seam. The sophomore even showed some impressive velocity, reaching 98 mph on the radar gun early. These performances from Nye and Fennell were not surprising per se, as they were projected as the weekend guys well before the season started. However, their starts are good news for the Commodores, who will lean on them to go the distance before a young bullpen enters the game.  

The one question mark surrounding the weekend starter position was Taylor, who had little starting experience before coming to Vanderbilt. When he was with Georgia, he made just nine relief appearances but appeared to be eyeing a starting role for the ‘Dores after his summer on the Cape. Though Taylor was technically credited with the loss in Vanderbilt’s 11-1 run-rule loss to Oklahoma State, his outing was a hopeful one — and was not the reason the Commodores lost. The Flowery Branch, Georgia, native logged 4.1 innings, in which he struck out seven, walked three and allowed two runs on two hits. Although his approach and arsenal are less of a sure fit to the strike-oriented starters that head coach Tim Corbin and pitching coach Scott Brown seem to like, they have a lot of chase and movement. Taken together, these starters have three truly different profiles which I really like — and which will only benefit the ‘Dores as the season wears on.  

Power presence 

For the past two seasons, our staff, myself included, has lamented about the power gap that existed between Vanderbilt and its opponents. This weekend, though, showed that the offensive woes of the Commodores are not due to the absence of power. The Black and Gold hit an astonishing nine home runs in 25 innings. Notably, catcher Colin Barczi and third baseman Brodie Johnston had multi-homer single-game performances; Barczi homered three times against TCU and Johnston hit two long balls against Texas Tech.  

Nine home runs in the first three games of the season against solid opponents is a far cry from the power gap that plagued the program last year. However, much in the same vein that Corbin and Brown have always emphasized to pitchers that solo homers will not lose you the game, the likelihood that they will win you the game is also slim. Vanderbilt won the one game where at least one of its homers scored more than a single run. Undoubtedly, the pop is there; now the question is whether the rest of the lineup can get on base for the middle of the lineup to drive them in. 

Good competition 

While some programs in Power Four conferences started their seasons against mid-major competition, Vanderbilt opted to participate in a classic with high-level opponents. Ultimately, I see this move benefiting the Commodores in the long run. TCU is ranked as the preseason No. 10 team in the nation, and Vanderbilt went toe-to-toe with them. While Oklahoma State was unranked, head coach Josh Holliday always has his squad competing for a championship. Furthermore, the Cowboys were coming off a disappointing run-rule loss to Arkansas the day before their game against the Black and Gold.  

Let’s be clear, I am in no way making excuses for the performances this weekend. If the Commodores truly want to compete not just in the SEC but on the national stage this year, they will need to put together much better complete performances on the diamond. I also don’t think the program is looking to make any excuses for itself either. Rather, let’s consider what playing a good opponent and coming up short can do for this team in terms of making it better early on in the season.  

Three down 

Reliever question marks 

While the Commodore starters were impressive this weekend, the bullpen left a lot more to be desired. Of the 19 runs Vanderbilt surrendered this weekend, the bullpen was responsible for 12 of them. Some of the older and more experienced arms on the reliever staff that we expected to lead the way, such as Alex Kranzler and Jacob Faulkner, had rough outings, while other names, such as Miller Green, did not even see the mound.  

This has been a trend in recent years for Brown’s pitching staff — some of the best starters in the nation, followed by a shaky bullpen — especially in the first half of the season. Vanderbilt will need to find a solution to this issue rather quickly if it wants to go the distance. The Commodores have a deep arsenal of arms, especially young ones, that did not see the mound this weekend, that they may turn to earlier than expected. With five games coming up this week, the ‘Dores are almost sure to go deep into the ‘pen, and perhaps a young arm will surprise Corbin and Brown. 

Uncharacteristic errors 

Fielding errors committed by a Corbin team are not usually something of concern. In fact, in the last handful of seasons, the Commodores have been one of the SEC and the nation’s best in fielding percentage. This is because, over all else, Corbin values players with a sticky glove and reliable hands, and it has paid dividends in conference play. However, this weekend the team tallied errors that are both uncharacteristic of a Vanderbilt team and contributed to their losses.  

Against TCU, the Commodores committed several costly errors that resulted in the game-winning run for the Horned Frogs crossing the plate. First, Luke Guth threw a wild pitch that allowed runners to advance to second and third base. While Guth was replaced right after the wild pitch with England Bryan, the ‘Dores committed an error when Barczi threw a dropped third strike past first baseman Max Jensen and into right field. Ultimately, this scored two unearned runs for the Horned Frogs and gave them a 5-3 lead in the top of the eighth.

The next day, Nye committed some uncharacteristic errors when he overthrew not one, but two easy outs to first base off of hits back to him at the mound. While these errors can be easy to overlook on a box score where the Commodores run-ruled their opponent, they reflect an uncharacteristic defensive unsoundness that Corbin will be almost sure to emphasize fixing in the coming weeks.  

Back half blues 

While I mentioned that the middle and top of Vanderbilt’s batting order had some surprising pop, the back half of this lineup had a rough opening weekend. The six-through-nine spots in the Commodore lineup combined to go 7-for-40 on the weekend — a meager .175 batting average. In their losses, the ‘Dores went 3-for-23 at the plate, while in their win, they went 4-for-17. The equation is simple: Vanderbilt needs to get runners on base in order for its powerful top half of the lineup to make their hits really hurt the other team. If they don’t find a way to get some production from the six-through-nine spots, all the power the ‘Dores have emphasized over the offseason and worked hard to obtain will essentially be in vain. In a world where everyone is seemingly focused on the power bats of the SEC, this lineup could use a little bit of the old-style hit-and-run baseball that Corbin’s teams have always been so good at. 

Vanderbilt will take the field again Feb. 17 at 4 p.m. CST against Eastern Michigan for the first of two midweek matchups against the Bald Eagles.