Down to its last strike. Vanderbilt pulled its season out of the fire in a way nobody would have dreamed in a crazy 6-5 win over Stanford in the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska's TD Ameritrade Park.
Vanderbilt--which prides itself on playing smart, clean baseball centered around pitching and defense--got a short outing from its starting pitcher, was awful enough in the field that it got a rare mid-game chewing out by its head coach, darn-near got beaten by Stanford's Brock Jones alone, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, was down to its last strike in the ninth down a run with nobody on against the Cardinal's best pitcher, and somehow, came from four runs down to advance to a rematch with North Carolina State at 1 Central on Friday.
"One of those classic College World Series games. Unfortunately, it didn't fall our way. I've been a part of a few of them," Stanford coach David Esquer said.
With Vanderbilt shortstop Carter Young at the plate, Stanford's Brendan Beck sailed a pitch over catcher Kody Huff's head. Spencer Jones ran home from third with the winning run, sending the Cardinal home from Omaha and keeping the Commodores' season alive.
Beck's 1-0 pitch simply slipped out of his hand and went several feet over Huff's head. Jones scored easily and the Commodore dugout raced on the field and mobbed him behind home plate.
"I saw the curveball break out of his hand, and I knew curveball -- I know curveballs like that for a catcher, any catcher, doesn't matter elite, whatever level, are hard to catch," Vanderibilt's Enrique Bradfield Jr., who was standing on second at the time, said. "When I saw that I knew it was going to give us a chance.
"It hit his glove, hit the back stop, got caught in the net and we scored the run."
First baseman Dominic Keegan homered and drove in two, while Bradfield led Vandy with three hits.
Luke Murphy (4-1) got the win with 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
Just minutes before Jones scored. Beck had been plowing through the Commodore lineup, retiring the first eight hitters he faced. Beck had a 3-2 count on Vaz, who looked at a breaking ball away to reach on a two-out walk.
"That was the at-bat that turned the inning," Corbin said. "It was just getting to first base. He could have left the zone on that breaking ball down but he stayed off of it. That was a very good at-bat by a kid that's got a good heartbeat for the game."
Then came Jones--a lefty pinch-hitting for Jayson Gonzalez--who grounded one deep to short. The speedy Jones was almost certainly going to reach anyway (the play was ruled a hit), and then shortstop Jonathan Crampton's throw went past first, putting Vaz on third.
"Didn't get what he wanted, but [Jones] was ready to hit. I think that's the most important thing," Corbin said.
Then came Bradfield, who ripped a first-pitch curve ball into right to tie the game. Three pitches later, Jones scored the wining run.
"Just one strike, one out away and we weren't able to get that," Esquer said. "And hats off to Vanderbilt for staying with it and creating that inning out of nothing against an unbelievable pitcher. So when you're able to do that against a pitcher like Brendan Beck, you've earned that win.
And so I congratulate them. But I feel for Brendan."
Had Beck landed the pitch to Vaz, he'd have been the story in a very different way.
Stanford's Friday-night starter and All-American had been summoned to get the Cardinal out of a jam in the seventh. With Vaz on second and a 1-2 count on Jacob Palisch, Esquer went to Beck to finish the at-bat.
Beck promptly started dominating, striking out Gonzalez on one pitch and then getting Bradfield and Young swinging. He added two more strikeouts in the eighth (Keegan, Tate Kolwyck) and then got an Isaiah Thomas ground-out to end that.
Meanwhile, Vandy teetered on the brink of extinction in the bottom of the eighth as the Cardinal loaded the bases on two walks and a single, all with two outs.
But Murphy came in and punched out Huff on an 81-mile-an-hour slider. And in the ninth, he got the Cardinal in order, two more coming on strikeouts (both fastballs).
Nick Maldonado (three innings, one run) and Chris McElvain (1 2/3 scoreless innings) helped bridge the gap to Murphy. The Commodores went to their bullpen after Stanford put two on in the fourth with nobody out against Christian Little, who gave up four runs, but just one was earned.
That's because Little's teammates did nothing to help, prompting a wake-up call from Corbin in the dugout between innings.
"I don't typically talk to them during the course of the game," Corbin said. "But I thought that there were some moments. I went out to the mound to change pitchers, and I didn't think the eyes looked good. And when I came back in, [pitching coach Scott Brown] said the same thing.
"So just didn't want to go down -- if we were going to lose, we're going to lose playing aggressively and I just didn't think we were. It was more of a challenge than anything else. Rare moment because, first of all, I don't like doing that. And, second, of all it's their game. It's theirs to win or lose, and you don't ever want to interfere.
"But at the same time I didn't feel like they were playing like themselves and we needed to snap out of it. And I'm not saying that discussion had anything to do with what happened. But at that point we just needed to snap out of whatever fog we were in because we were not playing like ourselves.
It was easy to see why Corbin was upset as Vandy just didn't have it at the beginning.
Stanford's Eddie Park led off the game by grounding to Gonzalez at third, but the throw was bad and Park reached on an error. After Tim Tawa's single through short Stanford's Jones lined to Parker Noland at second for an out.
But Noland, thinking Vanderbilt had a play to catch Park off second, threw wide of Young. The ball trickled into left field and Park scored. Tawa stole third, and then the 'Dores caught a break as catcher C.J. Rodriguez's throw, while to the center field-side of third, hit Tawa and stayed in the infield near Gonzalez.
Gonzalez then redeemed himself by nailing Tawa at the plate on an ensuing round ball from Huff. A Christian Robinson fly ball to center ended that inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Bradfield singled to lead off but got picked off after Young struck out and then Keegan followed with the same.
In the second, Little got a strikeout to start and got ahead of Drew Bowser, who hit a fly ball to right that Thomas lost in the sun and went for a double.
Again, a good play bailed the Commodores out, this one by in left by Vaz who made a diving grab of a Park fly ball that would have scored at least one run, but instead ended the inning.
In the third, Brock Jones took a 3-1 fastball and hit it into the wind and over the wall in right for a 2-0 Stanford lead.
In the fourth, Vanderbilt pulled Little after a single and a walk to start the inning. Maldonado got a strikeout and then a possible double-play ball to Young at short.
Instead, the sure-handed Young dropped it. Stanford loaded the bases and then Maldonado walked in a run.
With two outs, Jones hit a chopper to Maldonado's right, which he fielded. But his throw pulled Keegan off the bag at first as Stanford led by four.
Then came the between-innings conversation, and things started to change. After Young walked to lead off the fourth, Keegan hit a blast to pull Vandy within 4-2.
Otherwise, Stanford lefty Quinn Mathews had held the Commodores down through five innings, never facing more than four hitters.
But in the sixth, Bradfield led off with a single and Keegan added another with one out. Kolwyck, pinch-hitting for Troy LaNeve in the cleanup hole, singled in a run and then Noland added another with two out.
However, that only pulled the 'Dores within a run, because Stanford's Jones had a two-out, RBI double off Maldonado the half-inning before.
The Commodores also gave themselves an opportunity to win by getting out of a jam in the seventh when McElvain struck out Bowser, and Rodriguez gunned down Nick Brueser stealing on the same play.
Kumar Rocker is expected to pitch for the Commodores, who fell 1-0 to North Carolina State on Monday.
