Vanderbilt Baseball fell in its weekend series on the road at Texas A&M this past weekend. After winning the first game of the three-contest series 14-8, the Commodores then dropped the remaining two games 4-8 and 0-12, both of which came April 3 in a doubleheader. With its fourth of seven SEC series in the books, the Commodores hold a 19-14 overall record and are sitting at .500 in the conference at 6-6. The Black and Gold remain unranked nationally while sitting at No. 10 in the SEC, with their only ranked wins coming over then-No. 13 LSU (series win) and No. 21 Tennessee (series sweep). Now, the VandyBoys will return to Nashville for a four-game home stint: a midweek game against Eastern Kentucky and a weekend series against No. 16 Oklahoma.
While the Commodores seemed to be riding the momentum they found against their in-state rival, Tennessee, the weekend before in the first game Thursday, the team had a completely different showing the next day. With that said, let’s take a closer look at what went right for the Commodores and what went wrong against the Aggies.
Barczi bombs
Colin Barczi started his season with a scorching hot bat when he went yard not one, not two but three times against TCU in one of the biggest ballparks in Major League Baseball. After this big first impression, he remained a rather regular contributor on the contact side, collecting 10 hits in the next 11 games he appeared in. The junior also spent a decent amount of time absent from the lineup due to injury, appearing in a game Feb. 18 against Eastern Michigan but not appearing again until March 20 against Mississippi State.
In his absence, Vanderbilt seemed to lack the glue he provided in the middle of the lineup with his high contact rate and knack for finding extra base hits. But then, in his eighth game back for the ’Dores since injury, Barczi matched his season-opening performance. The Naperville, Illinois, native went 4-of-6 on the day, with an astounding three home runs and a single that drove in four runs. But then, he was relatively quiet for the remainder of the series, going 0-for-6. But the obvious pop and sparkplug Barczi seems to be for his team cannot be underestimated. Last season, we saw him really heat up with extra base hits in the back half of SEC play. The chance he does the same this season will only increase with more at-bats.
Connor Fennell will rebound
While there was a lot that did not go right for Vanderbilt’s pitching staff at College Station, one of the more surprising shows came from Connor Fennell. The New Hampshire native grew into a starting spot on head coach Tim Corbin and pitching coach Scott Brown’s staff last season and quickly took the nation by storm with his funky spin, location and quick pace that made up for his less-than-flashy velocity. Fennell was always the kid who flew under the radar, and with his rise in college baseball last year, I think many people forget that the environment he thrived in is no longer feasible for him.
This year, Fennell came into the season being the centerpiece of a relatively young pitching staff — a complete 180 from where he started the season last year. And while he is not a kid that is easily shaken, that kind of pressure to go out and get a Friday win can be, even on the most minute level, taxing to a player’s psyche. That tax, or rather lack of sharpness, that has always been a staple of Fennell’s game was apparent through the first half of the season. At times, he struggled to locate pitches and left balls hanging over the middle of the plate. Things seemed to be trending up for the pitcher against Tennessee, where he went 7.1 innings, allowing just three hits and two runs. But the junior had a less-than-desirable appearance on Thursday against a talented Texas A&M lineup, going 4.2 innings, his shortest of the season, while allowing five runs on five hits.
With Fennell, though, one thing is for certain: when he gets knocked down, he gets back up. This makes me feel fairly certain that this is a blip for him, and he will be the guy that Vanderbilt needs to get them Friday wins in the second half of conference play.
High ceiling, low floor
To put it simply, I think a lot of the inconsistency narratives that surround this team can be perfectly summarized by one thing: a high ceiling with a low floor. What we are seeing is a hitting and pitching staff that have a lower floor than is typical of a Corbin-crafted team but it is also one that has a higher ceiling, and if they can put the pieces together, they just might have that spark that gets them past a regional for the first time since 2022.
Where this is most evident is in the batting lineup. In fact, it is par for the course when going for a power-oriented approach. One thing is almost guaranteed with power hitters: they strike out more often or don’t reach base as much as a contact guy does. That is why Vanderbilt can score 15 runs in a game as easy as they can get blanked against some of the best teams in the nation.
For years, fans and critics lamented that Corbin should adopt a more power-centered approach to his offense. It seems as if Corbin, with his hiring of Jason Esposito, has come to accept the givens of potential inconsistencies, but that fans, despite wanting more power are still uncomfortable moving on from the hit-and-run style that the ’Dores have won with for so many years.
Domino effect
While we have written about this before, I think it is important to emphasize how injured, and consequently, short-armed, the Vanderbilt bullpen is right now. The reason this is so important is that even just one or two injuries can cause a domino effect in a college baseball bullpen. But with as many as Vanderbilt has, Corbin and Brown have been forced to play young arms in spots that they would not ordinarily do so.
One thing that I have always really admired about Corbin and Brown’s approach with freshmen is that they ease them into high-stakes situations and build their confidence — very rarely do they turn to freshmen in momentous spots. The expectation is that a freshman is probably going to fail their first few times out, and the ones that don’t, then earn their way into higher-stakes situations, thereby being eased into the stage that is Division I baseball. The injuries Vanderbilt’s bullpen suffered so early in the season almost completely eliminated that game plan for the coaches. While the less-than-desirable performances by these freshmen, especially in their starts, are disappointing, they are in effect a manifestation of the domino effect that happens when a program’s go-to guys are no longer available.
Vanderbilt will look to rebound from its series loss as it hosts Eastern Kentucky April 7 at 6 p.m. CDT.
