NASHVILLE, Tenn.--Tears flowed freely as East Carolina's Tyler Smith couldn't contain the emotions any longer.
The East Carolina senior got choked up when a reporter asked one of those routine questions you ask a player whose career had just ended at this stage, with the reality dawning on Smith that he'd never play on college baseball's biggest stage in next week's College World Series.
ECU coach Cliff Godwin managed a little better, sniffling briefly in his opening statement. Godwin later bristled at questions that touched on the Pirates' NCAA record of 31 tournament appearances without making it to Omaha.
"If you want to be mad at somebody, then be mad at the head coach. ... I don't care about Omaha," he said. "Not right now. I care about these men that are hurting, that have poured their soul, and sweat, and tears into our program for six and five years and the other guys, too.
"They've given us everything and more and it's not good enough. Life's not fair and I don't know why we haven't gone. ... We're doing the right things, our kids are doing the right things, we just haven't knocked the door open. The percentages say if you keep knocking the door, the door's going to open."
Goodwin had his own view of this when he was Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin's director of baseball operations from 2004-05. The Commodores knocked on the door in 2004, when they lost at Texas in a super regional that year but wouldn't break through until 2011, long after top-rated recruiting classes that everyone to take them there years earlier had not.
And then after Godwin was gone came Vandy's national title in 2014, and another in 2019, and more blue-chip recruits since. And two of those--Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter--pitched spectacularly enough that the Commodores may be the favorites to win a third when the CWS starts next Saturday.
Corbin has taken to the program where it seems there's more relief in meeting the expectation than there is joy in high achievement. There was a business-as-usual feel about this weekend for sure and maybe that's fair given where the program is, and given it was a consensus top-five pick in preseason.
But this year was not business as usual. The team had the weight of expectations without the benefit of experience as Rocker is its only player who had a significant role in 2019. Its bonding experiences were limited by last year's truncated season and then the Covid-disrupted offseason.
"Somber. Very somber," Corbin responded, when asked about how it felt to sit in an empty office with baseball canceled last year. "It was tough. It was really tough. Just didn’t know if we were going to get back to normal."
And then "normal" took its sweet time in arriving. The start of the season was supposed to be a relief, but it wasn't always. As task-driven as Corbin is, he's also a people person. You could hear the frustration in Corbin's voice as the school refused to increase capacity in the stands as others around his conference did. And so to not be able to share the season with others also took a toll.
League play was a grind in its own way. The Commodores were bruised and battered all year, but adversity made them stronger. It created opportunities for players like Troy LaNeve and Javier Vaz who barely got off the bench two months ago to do big things down the stretch. (Vaz, who had 14 at bats coming into Friday, made significant contributions in both wins in the super regional.)
"The injuries are real," Corbin said on Saturday. "I never talk about them because it’s kind of a next-man-up situation."
Of course, what carried the team this far was pitching. ECU--which scored 400 runs this season--had five hits against the Commodores and got a player past second base once.
As Corbin put it later, "This is not a video game," when asked about how special Leiter had been on Saturday.
A video game. At times in the last decade, Corbin's teams have made baseball look like a video game. And maybe it'll continue a while; no matter who else emerges, the Commodores look awfully tough to beat given opponents will be staring down Rocker and Leiter in pitching-friendly TD Ameritrade Park starting next Saturday.
But the Commodores aren't the first program to make it look simple. A decade ago, South Carolina came within one game of a third-straight national title. Fifteen years ago, Oregon State won the first of back-to-back national titles. And neither made it to a super regional this year.
And so there are no guarantees Maybe Vanderbilt repeats, or maybe the bats--and yes, it's a little concerning that the Commodores managed just six runs in two games, especially after a mediocre showing in the SEC tournament--will be the team's undoing.
Sometimes baseball delivers what you want, and sometimes it doesn't. That's why, as we waited for Corbin and his players to hop on the Zoom press conference, Corbin made sure to soak it in. He congratulated players and mixed with families and spent time with his wife, Maggie, because better than anyone, he knows these moments are special, and there are no guarantees he'll get to do them again.
