High Point ends Vanderbilt's season in Clemson
High Point’s Miggy Echazarreta delivered a ninth-inning RBI single off Carter Holton, sending the Panthers to victory and ending Vanderbilt’s season in the Clemson regional of the NCAA baseball tournament in Clemson, S.C., on Saturday.
Vanderbilt led 5-0 entering the bottom of the sixth. but High Point tied the game with five in the sixth and added four more in the seventh.
Vanderbilt got four in eighth to tie, but left two on in the inning and another on in the ninth before Echazarreta walked off the Commodores.
Starter Bryce Cunningham allowed four runs in 5 1/3 innings. Two of those came off Brennan Seiber, who gave up a game-tying home run in the sixth and was eventually charged for two runs of his own.
It wasted a 5-for-5 day from shortstop RJ Austin. Colin Barczi drove in two runs on fourth-inning home run.
The Panthers, participating in their first NCAA tournament in program history, scored their first tournament win after a 4-3 loss to Clemson last night.
Saturday's loss included so many elements of a season that didn't meet expectations, including strike-throwing issues (five Vanderbilt ptichers combined to walk six men and hit three more), a large blown lead and absences from key players due to injury, and a game-deciding error (Austin had a throwing error to start the ninth) at the worst possible time.
"It's just the self-induced bases that--we put them on, whether it was a walk or hit by pitch--(where) we sputter a little bit. ... It was tough sledding and they took advantage of it," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said.
"To be honest, we didn't deserve to win," Corbin added later.
The loss went to Holton, who allowed one unearned run in what's likely to be the last inning-and-a-third of his collegiate career.
Austin, who started the season playing outfield, spent much of the season playing first due to a season-ending injury to Chris Maldonado in February, had settled in nicely at his 2023 position (second base) as the Commodores made a run to the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament.
But on Saturday, Austin made his first start of the season at short, where the Commodores were without starter Jonathan Vastine (flu), who was pulled in the middle of Friday’s loss to Coastal Carolina.
Vastine spent Saturday in his hotel room with the same ailment. And then in the first inning, Vanderbilt lost starting catcher Alan Espinal; Espinal walked in the top half of the inning and stole second but appeared to jam his leg into the bag on his slide and was replaced by Jack Bulger to start the bottom of the inning.
"It's a knee (injury)," Corbin said. "He can't move. Yeah, he was compromised after that after the slide into second base. He tried to play, he wanted to go back out. He couldn't run and he couldn't squat and that was it."
For most of the day, it looked as if the changes might play to Vandebilt's favor.
The Commodores took a 1-0 lead when Jayden Davis reached on an error that scored Austin from third.
Austin and Davis then combined on a 6-4-3 double play to keep High Point off the board in the bottom of the inning.
The two did it again in the second, with Davis starting this one to get Cunningham out of that inning.
After a Davis error gave the Panthers a leadoff runner in the third, Bulger threw Brayden Simpson out stealing.
Davis reached on an infield single to start the fourth and then Barczi hit a 426-foot homer to left-center for a 3-0 lead. Austin singled in Hewett later in the inning for a four-run lead.
Diaz, playing at less than 100% after fouling a pair of pitches off his left knee on Friday, started a 5-4-3 double play in the fourth.
Braden Holcomb doubled in the fifth and then scored when Davis slapped a single through the right side.
Cunningham quickly ran out of gas in the sixth, allowing a pair of one-out walks followed by consecutive RBI singles by Cael Chatham and Peyton Carr before he was lifted for Seiber, who gave up a game-tying home run to Adam Stuart.
That was the beginning of the end. High Point batted around and plated four runs on four hits off three Vanderbilt pitchers--Seiber, Miller Green and Ryan Ginther--taking a 9-5 lead.
Vanderbilt answered with four in the eighth to tie, two coming on an Austin single. But Holcomb couldn't handle a bouncing throw from deep short from Austin, putting Echazarreta on to start the ninth.