Vanderbilt took its chances with freshmen pitchers on Tuesday night, and that didn't go so well.
Vanderbilt pitchers walked 10, hit two and allowed 14 hits as the Bulldogs pounded the Commodores, 13-2, at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., in the College World Series on Tuesday night.
Starting pitcher Christian Little gave up five runs (four earned) and Patrick Reilly allowed one as Mississippi State took a 6-1 lead after four innings.
"Just a tough night all the way around. We didn’t do much of anything real well all night long," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin summarized.
From that point on, the Commodores went with freshmen lefties Nelson Berkwich and Hunter Owen the rest of the way, saving experienced arms Chris McElvain, Luke Murphy and (maybe) Nick Maldonado for Wednesday's winner-take-all game, which Kumar Rocker will start.
"We just needed to eat some innings someway somehow," Corbin said. "Tough sledding for those guys [who pitched.]"
Vanderbilt (49-17) also allowed State the luxury of burning just two pitchers. Starter Houston Harding went four innings and allowed one run, while Preston Johnson threw the last five and also allowed just a run.
Mississippi State (49-18) is expected to counter with ace Will Bednar, who started on Saturday. Ace reliever Landon Sims hasn't thrown in the championship series and should also be available.
Vanderbilt, the visitor on Tuesday, will be the home team Wednesday.
Donye Evans, the only one of the five pitchers Vandy used, threw a scoreless eighth. He was the only one of the five Commodores who threw not to allow a run.
"We didn’t throw strikes tonight," catcher C.J. Rodriguez summarized. "We’ve got to be better
Rodriguez's second-inning homer was one of the few bright spots, Max Romero, who replaced Rodriguez in the seventh, homered in the ninth.
The pitching and defense were ugly from the start, and it never got better. Little and Reilly both walked four men while the Commodores made two errors with them on the hill.
State got its first run in the first thanks to Jayson Gonzalez's two-out error, which led to Luke Hancock's RBI single.
That was a harbinger of what was to come. State broke through with a four-run third that started when Tanner Allen grounded to Carter Young at short for what looked like the first out of the inning.
Instead, the ball got caught in the webbing of Young's glove and Allen reached on what was ruled an infield single. And then things fell apart on Little, who walked the next three before Reilly came in with a 2-1 deficit and nobody out.
Things didn't go better for Reilly. The first hitter he faced, Scotty Dubrule, hit one off Reilly's leg; it ricocheted into shallow right and scored two runs.
Berkwich came in with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth and got Logan Tanner to pop foul to shortstop Young.
For a split second, Berkwich appeared to get Vandy out of that inning with a grounder hit to Young at short that could have been a double-play ball. But Young bobbled it and Vandy got just one out as a sixth run scored.
State's offensive onslaught continued in the fifth, the Bulldogs strung together four singles and got two runs off Berkwich for an 8-1 edge.
Hunter Owen allowed five runs in his one inning of work.
The game started two hours late due to rain.
The question now for Vanderbilt: How long can Rocker and Maldonado throw on Wednesday?
After Tuesday's game, Corbin said he "didn't know" whether Maldonado would be available on Wednesday.
As for Rocker, he'll be pitching on five days' rest rather than the normal seven. Corbin was asked how that might affect his workload on Wednesday.
"We’d manage that in a way we need to… we had to do that with [Carson] Fulmer and [Walker] Buehler]… you just do what you have to do within reason. And certainly health comes into that equation," Corbin said.
The Commodores enter a Game Three of the CWS title series for the fourth time since 2014. Vandy has won two and lost one.
"All that’s left is a next game and everyone will sign up for that," Corbin said.
