Vanderbilt got their second home series sweep of the 2025 series against Xavier behind some timely hitting and elite pitching. Vanderbilt moves to 13-3 on the season and 10-0 at home.

Offensively, Brodie Johnston was the story of the week, going 4-12 with 2 home runs over the series. Behind him, Riley Nelson went 3-9 with 2 RBIs and a double and Jacob Humphrey went 3-5 with 2 RBIs. The real story of the weekend was the pitching, though. Cody Bowker threw 6 scoreless innings on Sunday, Sawyer Hawks threw 4 scoreless innings over 2 games, and Alex Kranzler threw 4.1 scoreless innings on Saturday.

Friday represented the sole run-rule victory of the series, with Vandy taking the game 15-3. JD Thompson had a strong outing, allowing only 3 runs in 6 innings. Aside from 1 inning where he allowed 2 home runs and gave up a walk, Thompson struck out 10 and only allowed 2 more hits. It was a testament to his mental fortitude to not let that one rough inning spiral. It was a relatively close game until the 7th inning, with the top of the 7th ending at 6-3, but then Vanderbilt had an offensive explosion. Brodie Johnston got the scoring started by hitting a 403 foot, 44 degree launch angle bomb to the top of Memorial Gym to move the score to 8-3. Vanderbilt then did a good job drawing walks and singling Xavier to death until Johnston got back to the plate where he hit a walkoff grand slam. This was the first time since at least 2011 that a Vanderbilt player hit 2 home runs in one inning. Tim Corbin said it was the first time in his career he has seen it happen.

Saturday was a very different story. Vanderbilt got out early in the 3rd, going up 2-0. Xavier responded well, though, loading the bases with 1 out and running off Ethan McElvain in the 4th. Alex Kranzler came in and walked in a run but then induced a double play to escape the inning with minimal damage done. Kranzler was untouchable throughout the rest of his appearance, going 4.1 innings allowing only 1 hit in the longest appearance of his Vanderbilt career. This was crucial as the offense was not able to generate much at all until the 8th inning where some well-executed small ball (including a 2 run bases loaded sacrifice squeeze) scored 4. Miller Green then came in and got the save with a scoreless 9th.

As a side note, this was the strongest outing of Ethan McElvain’s as a starter. He went 3.1 innings only allowing 1 run and struck out 7. He did, however, issue 5 free bases in that time – most of those coming in the 4th where he loaded the bases with one out. This mark is nowhere near good enough and he has to get better at not letting one walk or hit spiral into 2-3 free bases in just one inning. Tim Corbin expressed confidence in McElvain postgame, saying that this mental fortitude will come with more experience and that they are excited about his development.

Despite the pitching prowess displayed on Saturday, Cody Bowker and Sawyer Hawks one upped the rest of the staff with Vanderbilt’s best pitched game of the season. Bowker threw 6 scoreless innings, striking out 10 and only giving up 1 hit and 2 walks. He just does such a good job hiding his pitches and it seems like batters cannot get ahold of what it is until it’s too late. His fastball also has wicked movement on it and he can locate it precisely, when he pumps it up to 93-94 mph it might be the best pitch anyone on the roster can throw. Sawyer Hawks also continued his strong play, displaying an excellent pitch mix including a 95 mph fastball, 75-76 mph curveball, a 82 mph slider, and 86 mph changeup. He struck out 7 in 9 innings without allowing a hit as he got the first save of this season for Vanderbilt.

Offensively, there was not much to write home about. Austin, Nelson, and Johnston all went hitless as Vanderbilt only recorded 4 hits on the day. They used a measured approach and worked walks to get the bases loaded with no outs two innings in a row. Small ball managed to score 4 runs through those two innings. This offensive performance will not be good enough in SEC play, though.

This series represented a mixed bag of results. Xavier has faced a gauntlet thus far, facing a ranked Indiana team, Stanford, Tennessee, Oregon State, and now Vandy. Through that time they did not really struggle to put up runs, but had difficulty preventing teams from scoring a ton on them. Vanderbilt was able to silence what was viewed as a strong offense, but was unable to capitalize on a pitching staff that had their fair share of struggles in the first few weeks of the season (outside of the 7th inning on Friday night).

This was an extremely encouraging weekend for Vanderbilt pitching as there was not one “bad” performance and they only had to use 6 pitchers over 3 games. If Vanderbilt can continue to get this level of performance from their starters and the top of the bullpen then they will be in some games that they otherwise would have no business being in. Whether this kind of weekend will occur in SEC play is an entirely different question, though.

For the offense, it was not the best weekend at all aside from a few bright spots. It was encouraging to see some more power, as the 4 home runs hit this weekend is the most of any weekend series thus far. As previously mentioned, Brodie Johnston was amazing throughout the weekend and looks like a burgeoning superstar. Riley Nelson and Jacob Humphrey continued their strong performance, too (Nelson’s 3-9 is misleading, he got robbed of extra bases in Sunday’s game and had a ball that was hit above 105 mph that died on the warning track). Aside from that, though, there was not much good. There was not enough consistent hitting and the production from a few key bats was not great. Braden Holcomb and Jayden Davis’ production continues to disappoint and it is clear that they are just pushing themselves and not all there mentally. Vastine went 3 of 11 for the weekend but did hit a home run, Rose went 2-9, and RJ Austin went 0-8 in the last 2 games. While I doubt Austin’s slump lasts, the rest of those returns are not encouraging heading into SEC play. A few of those bats are going to have to step up their play in a major way if Vandy is to be successful in conference play.

Overall, the weekend was a success in the win column and with pitching, but continued to demonstrate some concerning patterns offensively. We will see if Vanderbilt can translate this small ball, pitching heavy approach as they visit number 22 Auburn next weekend in the first weekend of SEC action.