Vanderbilt Baseball (2-2) hosted Eastern Michigan (1-3) at Hawkins Field for the Commodores’ first home game of the 2026 season. After two losses to TCU and Oregon State in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown in Arlington, Texas, Vanderbilt bounced back in a major way, beating the Eastern Michigan Eagles, 13-2.
Freshman Tyler Baird drew his first collegiate start for the Commodores and had a strong first three innings before an unlucky turn in the fourth led to him surrendering two runs.
Nevertheless, the bats were hot for Vanderbilt, as Brodie Johnston hit two home runs, bringing his total to five on the season.
“He’s comfortable at the plate,” Corbin said postgame. “He’s seeing the ball well. I just think that he’s kind of in a rhythm. He was in Texas and was here.”
In addition to Johnston’s big day, Tommy Goodin and Brendan Holcomb both launched homers of their own and combined for six RBIs.
The Commodore’s offensive surge led the way for their first home win of the season.
Top 1: Vanderbilt 0, Eastern Michigan 0
Baird started his first collegiate game by striking out Devan Zirwas on three pitches. The freshman then issued a seven-pitch walk to Bruce Jellison before getting Kevin Krill to roll into an inning-ending double play.
Bottom 1: Vanderbilt 3, Eastern Michigan 0
The Commodores had the first two batters reach base with Logan Johnstone drawing a walk and Colin Barczi getting hit by a pitch. Ethan Davis, the senior starter for the Eagles, bounced back by getting Brodie Johnston to lineout to left and Tommy Goodin to ground into a fielder’s choice. However, Braden Holcomb took advantage of the earlier freebies by hitting a three-run homer to right-center.
Top 2: Vanderbilt 3, Eastern Michigan 0
Baird pitched a quick 1-2-3 inning where he struck out Tristan Crane, Baird’s second strikeout of the game.
Bottom 2: Vanderbilt 4, Eastern Michigan 0
Coming out of the bullpen, Greg Kennedy started the inning for Eastern Michigan by giving up a leadoff single to Ryker Waite. Carter Johnstone hit a ball that barely got through the middle of the infield, allowing Waite to advance to third and Johnstone to advance to second on the throw. Following up after his brother, Logan Johnstone hit a chopper to first, which was enough to bring in Waite from third. To end the inning, there were shades of the first inning with Barczi getting hit by another pitch and Brodie Johnston lining out to center field this time.
Top 3: Vanderbilt 4, Eastern Michigan 0
With an impressive backhand and throw across the diamond by Brodie Johnston at third base, Baird continued to roll with another three up, three down inning.
Bottom 3: Vanderbilt 6, Eastern Michigan 0
Tommy Goodin stretched a single in the right-center gap into a double and was moved over to third following a Braden Holcomb fielder’s choice. Following a walk to Rustan Rigdon, Waite picked up his second hit of the day with an opposite-field double off the left field wall to make it 5-0. Vanderbilt wasn’t done in the inning, though, as Korbin Reynolds tacked on another run with a sacrifice fly to right.
Top 4: Vanderbilt 6, Eastern Michigan 2
Baird was set to have his third consecutive 1-2-3 inning, but Kevin Krill was able to reach on a drop-third strike with two outs. The Eagles didn’t let the opportunity go to waste as they ended up knocking Baird out of the game with three consecutive hits that plated two runs. Luke Guth came in relief and stopped the bleeding by getting Keegan Knupp to groundout.
Bottom 4: Vanderbilt 9, Eastern Michigan 2
Eastern Michigan turned to their third arm of the game with Brian Henson taking the mound to face the top of Vanderbilt’s lineup. Logan Johnstone started with a walk and Brodie Johnston picked up his first hit of the game before Tommy Goodin hit a three-run home run to right field.
Top 5: Vanderbilt 9, Eastern Michigan 2
Drew Jones and TJ Williams started the inning with two consecutive hits and turned the lineup over to the top with two on and no outs. However, the Eagles’ momentum was quickly spoiled with Devan Zirwas grounding into a double play and Bruce Jellison striking out to leave Jones stranded at third.
Bottom 5: Vanderbilt 9, Eastern Michigan 2
Henry Slaby came in relief and faced a little bit of trouble, allowing a two-out hit and walk, but ultimately got Colin Barczi to strikeout, making the fifth inning the first scoreless inning of the game.
Top 6: Vanderbilt 9, Eastern Michigan 2
Vanderbilt turned to side-arm reliever Jacob Faulkner for the sixth inning, who worked a relatively clean inning where he hit the leadoff man but struck out the last two batters he faced.
Bottom 6: Vanderbilt 11, Eastern Michigan 2
Johnston began the bottom half of the inning with a home run to center to make it 10-2. The Commodores kept the pressure on as Braden Holcomb picked up an infield single, Rustan Rigdon flared one into left, and Ryker Waite walked to force Eastern Michigan to turn to Aidan Norris out of the bullpen with the bases loaded and one out. Norris, the junior reliever, didn’t let the pressure affect him as he limited the damage to a Korbin Reynolds sac fly that plated one.
Top 7: Vanderbilt 11, Eastern Michigan 2
Faulker came back out for the seventh and retired the only two batters he faced. Vanderbilt then turned to Jakob Schulz for a lefty-on-lefty matchup. Schulz delivered a strong performance, striking out TJ Williams to end it.
Bottom 7: Vanderbilt 13, Eastern Michigan 2
With the top of the lineup due up and the Black and Gold being one run away from the run-rule, Logan Johnstone set the stage with a walk for Johnston’s game ending home run — his second of the day.
Vanderbilt will be back tomorrow at 4:30 CST for game two of three of its midweek series against Eastern Michigan.
