NASHVILLE – The Vanderbilt baseball team is headed back to the College World Series for the first time since stringing together a national title in 2014 and a runner-up finish in 2015.
The Commodores’ wait wasn’t easy, especially after losing a super regional series on their Hawkins Field last year – but that made this berth even sweeter for them.
Austin Martin had three RBIs and hit two of his team’s five home runs as Vanderbilt routed Duke 13-2 on Sunday to win the third game of their best-of-three super regional. Winners of the NCAA tournament’s eight super regionals advance to the CWS, which starts Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Commodores are going for the fourth time in program history.
“It’s a very proud and joyous moment when you get to see your players celebrate something like this at the end, particularly for what they’ve been through over the years,” said Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, whose team lost a super regional to host Oregon State two years ago and battled Mississippi State through three games before losing the finale in 11 innings in Nashville last spring.
This year’s Commodores won the Southeastern Conference’s regular-season and tournament titles on their way to being seeded No. 2 overall in the NCAA tournament. At 54-11, they lead the nation in victories in 2019 and have matched the program record for single-season wins.
The Commodores, who have won 14 of their past 15 games, will face seventh-seeded Louisville in their CWS opener.
“I said before the super regional started that I thought they were a historically good team, meaning they’re one of the best teams in college baseball in the last five to 10 years,” Duke coach Chris Pollard said. “They have a team that can go to Omaha and win it.”
Duke (35-27) won the opener of this series 18-5 in a game that started Friday and stretched into early Saturday. Then the Commodores struck out 35 batters over the next two games. Kumar Rocker struck out 19 on Saturday night in a 3-0 no-hitter before Mason Hickman led four pitchers Sunday with nine of a combined 16 strikeouts.
“Some of that was still a funk of what we had to go through last night,” Pollard said.
Patrick Raby (10-1) got the win, striking out four in two innings of relief.
Pat DeMarco hit a three-run homer and Julian Infante and Stephen Scott added solo shot for Vanderbilt, which never trailed.
Chillari (2-4) walked the first batter he faced in the second before being pulled.
Duke avoided being shut out for a second straight game when Rudy Maxwell, from Brentwood, Tennessee, hit a home run in the third. Michael Rothenberg added a solo homer in the fourth.