OMAHA, Neb. - Vanderbilt came to the College World Series ranked in the top five among Division I baseball teams this season in all the major offensive categories. The Commodores have a .400 hitter, the No. 4 overall pick in this year's MLB draft and three of the top-20 run producers in the nation.
Through 8 1/3 innings against Louisville pitcher Luke Smith on Friday night, they did virtually nothing. Once Smith started to go through the order a fourth time, though, Vanderbilt couldn't be held back any longer.
Pat DeMarco chopped a grounder over third base in the ninth inning to give his team its first lead of the game, and the Commodores held on to beat Louisville 3-2 Friday night and advance to the CWS finals.
The Commodores (57-11), seeded second nationally when the NCAA tournament field was announced, will play Michigan (49-20) in the best-of-three finals starting Monday night. Vanderbilt last played in the title series in 2015, the year after it won the program's lone national championship.
Like Vanderbilt, Michigan went through its double-elimination bracket undefeated.
Commodores coach Tim Corbin said he was exhausted after his team beat Louisville for the third time this season and second time at the CWS. Emotions ran high, with Smith chirping at Julian Infante after he struck him out to end the eighth.
Corbin said his team's ability to maintain its poise was a big factor.
"We certainly had to stabilize their offense, because runs were very expensive tonight," Corbin said. "Luke Smith certainly pitched extremely well. He frustrated us. He was landing a lot of pitches. He was landing his off-speed pitches and secondary pitches, and we couldn't get anything going. But then just at the end, we got some very clutch hits."
When Smith came out for the ninth, the Commodores had been limited to three hits and had scored their only run on a double-play grounder. Smith retired .400-hitter Austin Martin but then walked JJ Bleday, the highest draft pick at this year's CWS.
Louisville coach Dan McDonnell had closer Michael McAvene ready to go in the bullpen but stayed with Smith (6-1). Ethan Paul ripped a double into the right-field corner on a 2-0 pitch to score Bleday and tie the game at 2-all.
"His pitch count was over 110, and I knew that he was close to his end," Paul said, "so I just wanted to get a pitch that I could handle. I wasn't going to expand for him or chase or anything like that. Just got in a hitter's count and got the pitch I was looking for and put a barrel on it."
Smith said he "absolutely" wanted the ball in the ninth.
"To pitch a complete game in the College World Series is something not a lot of people can say they did," Smith said. "I had confidence, and I appreciated the coaching staff believing in me. I left the ball over the plate and the guy put it in the right spot."
McAvene came on, and Philip Clarke's bloop single behind second base put runners on the corners with one out. DeMarco then hit a bouncer that went over third baseman Alex Binelas and landed just inside the line, bringing Paul in for the lead.
McDonnell, whose team lost for the first time in 46 games when leading after eight innings, said he wouldn't second-guess himself about leaving Smith in after Bleday walked. McDonnell said Smith kept batters off balance, and when he walked Bleday, it wasn't as if his pitches were missing by much.
"That's the challenge in coaching," McDonnell said. "You don't want to take our pitcher out too early. You don't want to take him out too late."
Louisville (51-18), which had a walk-off victory over Mississippi State on Thursday after erasing a 3-2 deficit in the ninth, had a chance against star closer Tyler Brown in the bottom half. Drew Campbell's one-out grounder down the line bounced off the bag at first and put him into scoring position.
Second base was as far as he got, though. Justin Lavey struck out, and second baseman Harrison Ray made a diving catch of a short infield pop by Henry Davius to end the game. Brown earned his 17th save this year.
Smith struck out a career-high 10 batters, the most in Louisville's 14 games over five CWS appearances.
Vandy starter Mason Hickman limited Louisville to two hits in six shutout innings. The Cardinals scored twice in the seventh off Jake Eder (2-0) to go up 2-1.
Vanderbilt is the first team to reach the finals three times since the CWS moved to TD Ameritrade Park in 2011. Now the Commodores are looking to become the first school to win multiple titles at the stadium.
Michigan coach Erik Bakich was Corbin's recruiting coordinator and hitting coach at Vanderbilt from 2003 to 2009. Vandy was 276-157 in his seven seasons in Nashville. Bakich recruited David Price, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 MLB draft and the American League Cy Young Award runner-up with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010.
Michigan advanced to the finals with a 15-3 win over Texas Tech in the afternoon.
"After Erik completed that one today, I was very happy for him," Corbin said. "We spent a lot of time together."
Wolverines aren't scared
Michigan has gone from being an anxious team playing not to lose the Big Ten regular-season championship a month ago to one that is carefree and just two wins away from the national championship.
The Wolverines ended up letting that conference title slip away, and it was a lesson learned.
"Now they're loose and laughing and smiling and having a great time and not thinking ahead, not making the moment too big," Bakich said. "They're just playing pitch to pitch and competing as hard as they can. When they make mistakes, they're aggressive mistakes. That's a sign of a group that isn't scared and the moment isn't too big for them."
Michigan had no problem playing free and easy Friday, scoring in all but one inning against a struggling Texas Tech pitching staff.
"I think something that's kind of been pretty beneficial for us is not really thinking about playing in the national championship or the stage that we're on," said Michigan starter Karl Kauffmann, who beat Texas Tech for the second time in a week. "It's literally been a one-game, one-pitch mindset."
Jimmy Kerr homered twice and had four hits, Jesse Franklin had three hits and four RBIs, and the Wolverines scored double-digit runs for the 20th time this season.
One of the last four teams to receive an at-large bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament field, the Wolverines (49-20) were sent to Corvallis, Oregon, as a No. 3 regional seed and have won eight of their 10 games since. That includes winning two of three against No. 1 national seed UCLA in a super regional.
Michigan reached the CWS for the first time since 1984 and will play for the program's first national championship since 1962. The Wolverines also won the national title in 1953.
Michigan is the fourth No. 3 or lower regional seed to make the finals since the tournament expanded in 1999. All three of those previous low seeds won the championship.
No Big Ten team has won the title since Ohio State in 1966.
"The conference has grown in baseball," Bakich said. "In 2015 it was a coming-out party. We had five teams go to the postseason for the first time ever. We had 53 drafted players, which tied the Pac-12. And ever since then we've done a good job as a conference of sending teams to the postseason, of having players go off to professional baseball or get drafted.
"The more we can do this, I think the more the Big Ten in baseball can continue to grow and be perceived as a major sport on par with some of the other major conferences in baseball."
Kauffman (12-6), who pitched seven innings last Saturday in a 5-3 victory, worked out of trouble in three innings and left after the sixth.
Texas Tech's Micah Dallas (7-2), who took his first loss of the season with a rough three-inning outing against the Wolverines last week, was knocked out in the second inning Friday after the first three batters reached. John McMillon was the first of six Red Raiders relievers, and five of them gave up at least one run.
Texas Tech pitchers issued 12 walks, one off the staff's season high, and gave up 14 hits.
"We're not going to focus on the negatives that happened on the field," said Red Raiders coach Tim Tadlock, whose team finished 46-20. "We wouldn't be sitting here without the guys we ran out there. Our guys have a lot to be proud of. At the same time, they're definitely disappointed in the outcome."
Ten of Michigan's 14 RBIs came with two outs, and the Wolverines still left 14 runners on base. The 15 runs were the most scored against the Red Raiders since Kansas put up 17 against them in April 2018.
This was the fifth meeting between these teams. The Red Raiders swept a three-game series they hosted in March, outscoring the Wolverines 29-10. They managed six runs in two games against Michigan at the CWS.
"We played them a while back, and that's not the same team we played," Tadlock said. "Their staff is to be commended for that. Their starting pitching is phenomenal. To a man, every guy in their lineup has gotten better since we've seen them. We didn't see what was coming today."
All-Big 12 right fielder and leadoff man Gabe Holt was out of Texas Tech's lineup for the fourth time in five games. He fractured his left thumb on June 8 while sliding into first base in the second game of a super regional and had surgery to put in pins. He was 1-for- in a 4-1 win over Florida State on Wednesday. =
Easton Murrell was in his spot at the top of the order.
Michigan has used three pitchers in the CWS through three games, making it the first team to reach the title series using three or fewer pitchers since Georgia in 1990. Kauffmann, Tommy Henry and Jeff Criswell are the only pitchers to throw for Michigan.