McCallie's Corbin Brooksbank commits to Vandy baseball

Corbin Brooksbank
Corbin Brooksbank

Corbin Brooksbank has two more years at McCallie, but he secured his future Monday with a verbal commitment to play baseball for College World Series finalist Vanderbilt.

"It's a huge relief," Brooksbank replied when asked if the pressure was off. "It has been my dream opportunity, and the offer gives me even more drive to work even harder - work on getting stronger and becoming a better baseball player."

An outfielder and pitcher for McCallie, Brooksbank is expected to become only a pitcher for the Commodores, who won the CWS last year and reached the finals again this year.

"Vanderbilt has been his dream school although he had gotten an offer from Tennessee a couple of weeks ago," Blue Tornado coach Greg Payne said. "I think he also had been scheduled to visit Georgia - maybe next month."

Upon leaving the Vanderbilt campus Monday, Brooksbank first called Payne and then called Tennessee.

"I told them I appreciated them recruiting me and giving me the offer but that I felt Vanderbilt was a better place for me and my family," the Signal Mountain resident said. "Tennessee wished me well."

Payne said the right-hander has two "plus pitches" already.

"He has two more years with me, but he also throws 92 miles an hour as a sophomore and he's probably not going to throw less than that, so (the Commodores) wanted to get him while they could," the coach observed. "With the fastball and slider he already has two plus pitches, and he can develop two more."

Even if Vanderbilt hadn't been atop Brooksbank's wish list, Payne said an offer from the Nashville school would have been hard to turn down.

"He couldn't pass up what they have going," Payne said. "Beyond the academics, their baseball is rolling - national champs last year and they played for it again this year. If that was indeed his dream, then it was a pretty smart decision on his part."

Brooksbank's visit was delayed because of the Commodores' CWS success, but he wasn't overwhelmed at receiving the offer as a rising junior. One of the Vandy assistants had hinted that an offer would be made; such offers to underclassmen are becoming a trend.

"Each of the four teams that played in the (TSSAA) Division II state tournament now have a Vanderbilt commitment playing for them, and I know two of them at least are underclassmen," Payne said. "It's a trend you will see more and more. The recruitment starts earlier. The commitments are made earlier. That's just the nature of things these days. I know that travel baseball is getting bigger and these scouting sites like Perfect Game are ranking kids very early."

Brooksbank hit a very respectable .375 with a handful of home runs and had three pitching wins with six saves.

"He only threw about 22 innings for us, but the kid has a big future and we wanted to bring him along slowly," Payne said. "I know he's talking of possibly being a position player also, and I can't speak for Vanderbilt, but I think his best shot (in college and beyond) will be as a pitcher."

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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