Are the VandyBoys back?  

Vanderbilt Baseball has dealt with plenty of adversity this season. A shaky start in the nonconference slate and a recent sweep at the hands of Mississippi State left Vanderbilt fans with a serious question: Were the Commodores seriously at risk of snapping their 19-straight NCAA Tournament appearances? A week ago, that certainly felt like a realistic outcome for this season. There was a lifelessness in the Vanderbilt dugout that did not appear to be fading. 

But sometimes, a game can turn the page for a team. This past weekend, it was a series that seems to have reignited faith that Vanderbilt Baseball can compete with the best of the best once again.  

The Commodores hosted Tennessee at Hawkins Field, looking to right the ship over their in-state rivals from out east. What occurred wasn’t just three wins, but a set of, what could be, season-altering victories.  

And the VandyBoys did it in dramatic fashion. 

In Game 1, the Commodores were in a tight pitching battle, as Connor Fennell was dealing on the mound for over seven innings. A single from Logan Johnstone allowed the Commodores to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th for a 3-2 victory. In Game 2, there was yet another pitching duel, but this time, the game went to 16 innings. Mack Whitcomb laid down a bunt with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 16th to win the game, yet another walk-off victory. What happened in Game 3? You guessed it, another walk-off winner as Tommy Goodin launched a grand slam into the left field bleachers down by three runs.  

Fans rarely see two walk-off wins in one series, but three? That’s practically unheard of.  

The Cardiac Commodores — a name the team earned last season during SEC play that carried them to the No. 1 overall seed —  seem to be back. More importantly, though, head coach Tim Corbin’s players finally seem to be finding their groove in conference play.  

Let’s dive into four quick thoughts from Vanderbilt’s series sweep of Tennessee.  

Bullpen bounce-back 

Let me begin this column with the area I’ve been most concerned about this season: the bullpen. Many key pieces of the pitching staff have been injured, including England Bryan, Matthew Shorey, Aiden Stillman and Miller Green, leaving Corbin and pitching coach Scott Brown with limited options once his starters run out of gas. Not to mention, it was announced this past week that Saturday starter Austin Nye will be out for the season, yet another blow to an already thin group.  

But against the Volunteers, I was impressed to say the least. I expected things to implode for Vanderbilt once its starters were done, but its young bullpen held its own and helped Vanderbilt earn three quality conference wins.  

On Friday, Brennan Seiber threw 2.2 scoreless innings in relief, giving up just one hit with seven strikeouts. In Saturday’s 16-inning thriller, Vanderbilt’s bullpen of Tyler Baird, Nate Schlote, Luke Guth and Nate Taylor gave up just six hits with no earned runs across 10 innings of work. On Sunday, Jakob Schulz threw 3.2 scoreless innings with just two hits. 

These outings aren’t just lucky; they show continued improvement across the staff. Pitchers like Guth, Seiber and Taylor, who have experience at the SEC level, have been extremely inconsistent to begin this season, but it seems they are falling into form now.  

Perhaps Brown still knows a thing or two about building an elite pitching staff. His unit certainly showed up in a big way this past weekend, keeping Vanderbilt afloat when its offense struggled to earn timely hits.  

Esposito’s magic 

Vanderbilt’s hitting narrative has been completely reshaped this season. Much of that has been due to new hitting coach Jason Esposito, who seems to have changed the entire lineup’s approach at the plate. Players are consistently finding big contact while eliminating whiffs at bad pitches.  

This has been extremely apparent throughout the order, but three players seem to really be hitting their stride under Esposito’s tutelage: Brodie Johnston, Ryker Waite and Braden Holcomb.  

Johnston, in particular, had a stellar weekend at the plate, hitting .470 over 15 at-bats. The sophomore went 4-for-5 on Friday and 3-for-5 on Sunday. Not only is he stringing together hits at a high rate, but his plate discipline is also looking much improved — something which can’t be quantified in a simple box score. In his freshman campaign, he consistently swung at balls well outside the strike zone and was clearly chasing home runs. This season, he’s hunting good pitches with a keen eye for making strong contact. One only needs to look at his strikeout percentages from year-to-year — 30% in 2025 and now 15% in 2026.  

Waite, who took on the role of shortstop after the departure of Jonathan Vastine last year, has also been seeing the ball exceptionally well. The sophomore hit just over .300 in the series, but his impact was certainly felt in Saturday’s game as he launched a two-run long ball to right field to give the Commodores a 3-0 lead at that point. Waite put on an exceptional amount of weight and muscle over the offseason, and he’s benefitting from it. His batting average sits at .326 this season — the second highest on the team — and he’s a consistent on-base threat. 

Holcomb seems to be hitting his stride in conference play, too. The junior was on a noticeable slump before the Tennessee series, hitting just .083 against Mississippi State a week prior. But against the Volunteers, he hit .314 with a three-hit day in the final walk-off grand slam victory. I feel confident that Holcomb will continue to be one of Vanderbilt’s strongest hitters as conference play heats up. While he was prone to a bit more swing-and-miss in his early years on West End, similar to Johnston’s freshman campaign, Esposito seems to have him trending in the right direction. 

All three of these players were critical to Vanderbilt’s series sweep of the Volunteers, and they’ll continue to be Corbin’s most pivotal pieces in the middle of the lineup as the season goes on. 

A star emerging 

With Nye’s season-ending injury and Taylor’s inconsistency to begin the season, there have been two openings in Vanderbilt’s starting pitching rotation. The Sunday position still remains undetermined, but Corbin seems to have found his Saturday guy: Wyatt Nadeau. The 6’6 freshman has been forced to adapt to the SEC stage extremely quickly, and through three starts against quality SEC opponents, he’s held his own.  

It’s easy to look at the box score from Saturday’s game against Tennessee and think Nadeau didn’t have a solid day. He did give up five earned runs, after all. But those watching saw the immense potential in the righty. He threw five hitless and scoreless frames — an extremely impressive accomplishment for an arm that doesn’t have much experience. He gave up a five-run sixth inning, but at that point, it was clear that he was laboring on the mound.  

Nadeau will be a huge part of this pitching staff moving forward. With a fastball in the mid to upper 90s and a wicked slider that sits in the high 80s, he’s able to generate significant swing-and-miss regularly. He’s also the perfect complement to Vanderbilt’s far lower velocity Friday starter: Fennell.  

The Maine native is just getting his college career started, but from what he’s shown so far, he projects to be an elite arm when he becomes draft eligible. For now, though, he’ll need to find length in his outings to save a weakened bullpen. 

Now walk it off 

Does the clutch gene really exist? 

Data has shown that it’s a myth, but it certainly didn’t feel that way for Vanderbilt against the Volunteers. Not one, not two, but three walk-off victories made for an unforgettable and heart-attack inducing series.  

It seems that all of Corbin’s players have the ability to come up with some clutch hits when it matters most. Interestingly, though, two of Vanderbilt’s three walk-off hits came from players not even in the starting lineup. Whitcomb, who hit the game-sealing bunt on Saturday, only entered the game to relieve Korbin Reynolds at the catcher position in the 10th inning. Tommy Goodin, who hit the game-winning grand slam on Sunday, came in as a pinch hitter in the 16th inning.  

Some would say that was a bit of luck to pick those two players, but Corbin is also a master at game management. He seemed to know exactly who would thrive in each potential game-winning spot — that’s not luck, it’s understanding your roster. As with all of Corbin’s teams, it’s competitive to make the starting lineup. However, there are still guys outside of the starting nine who are making an impact. It’s clear that Vanderbilt’s bench is one of the strongest it’s been in years.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a little bit of extra magic in that Vanderbilt dugout right now. The Commodores are cruising off some much-needed momentum in SEC play, hoping to keep their NCAA Tournament streak alive. 

The Commodores will return to action against Belmont March 31 at 6 p.m. CDT at Hawkins Field.