Cunningham pitches Vanderbilt past Florida in SEC tournament opener
HOOVER, Ala.—Vanderbilt’s Bryce Cunningham asked coach Tim Corbin for the ball for Tuesday's game with the Commodores' season potentially on the line. The junior gave Corbin everything he could have wanted, spinning six shutout innings in a 6-3 win over Florida at the Hoover Met in the Southeastern Conference tournament opener for both teams.
Vanderbilt (36-20) had just six hits--Florida had nine-- but the Commodores made theirs count more. The biggest was Calvin Hewett’s solo home run in the fifth, which gave Vandy a five-run advantage.
Cunningham was brilliant, using his slider, change-up and fastball effectively to limit hard contact. The junior struck out six and got eight fly-outs in the spacious Hoover Met, none of which threatened to leave the yard on a night where the breeze blew out to left and in from right.
Cunningham fired 50 of his 77 pitches for strikes, scattering five hits. He was pulled for Brennan Seiber to start the seventh.
"I think my changeup was probably my best pitch. It set up everything for me," Cunningham said.
Corbin said that Cunningham's persuasive ability was the key factor in the junior getting the ball.
"Bryce texted (pitching coach Scott Brown) the other night and told him he wanted the baseball, so, he got the baseball," Corbin said.
Seiber had a rocky ninth, giving up a Brody Donay double and then a two-out homer to right from Michael Robertson.
But second baseman RJ Austin made his second of two brilliant plays on the weekend, charging an Austin Wilson grounder and nailing him at first for the win.
"Obviously (Tim Corbin's) team played better than we did and we'll move forward," Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan said.
"(Cunningham) was in the zone with all his pitches and we I don't think did our job on the whole as hitters," Florida's Robertson said. "We didn't really compete in a way that allowed us to have success."
The Commodores small-balled a couple of runs in the second. After Alan Espinal walked and Barczi doubled to right-center to put two in scoring position.
Polk, on an 0-2, grounded out to second for a run and then Braden Holcomb flied to deep right into a slight breeze, scoring Colin Barczi from third.
Both runs came off Pierce Coppola, Florida’s left-handed starter.
Coppola had settled in by the fourth but Vanderbilt made him pay anyway.
Espinal singled to left with one out, barely made it to second on a wild pitch that catcher Luke Heyman blocked, and then slid in just ahead of the tag on Matthew Polk’s single to right.
Holcomb then singled solidly to center, easily scoring Polk to make it 4-0 and chasing Coppola from the game.
Hewett hammered a homer to left to make it 5-0 in the fifth.
RJ Austin added an RBI single to score Jonathan Vastine in the sixth for an unearned run off Jack Clemente.
The Gators didn't strike until the eighth, when Jac Caglianone smashed an infield single, advanced on a wild pitch and a passed ball and came home on a Colby Shelton ground-out.
The Gators continued to square Seiber in the ninth, but Austin's defense, as well as a nice, running catch from Hewett just before he crashed into defensive substitution Jacob Humphrey, helped Vanderbilt nail down a win.
Vanderbilt enters the double-elimination portion of the tournament on Wednesday when it plays Tennessee at 4:30 Central.
This might have been a win-or-go-home game for the Commodores, who entered the event on the NCAA tournament bubble, according to some. Hewett was asked if the win--Vanderbilt's RPI improved to 22 afterwards--changes the Commodores' mindset for the rest of the tournament.
"No, I don't think so," Hewett said. "We approach every game the same and attack our opponent the same."
Corbin said he'll consult with Brown on a starting pitcher for tomorrow, but no decision had been made as of 8 Tuesday evening.
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