The VandySports 100: No. 30, Kumar Rocker

Right-handed baseball pitcher Kumar Rocker lands 30th on the list of 100-greatest Vanderbilt athletes we've covered from 2003 to now. Here is a link to the complete list as we count down to No. 1.

Honors and awards: 2019 National Freshman of the Year (D1 Baseball, Baseball America)

2019 Southeastern Conference All-Freshman team

2019 SEC Freshman of the Week (Week 9)

2019 All-Nashville Regional

2019 College World Series MVP

In the VU record book: Single-season wins: tied-fifth (12)

Before VU: Rocker starred at North Oconee High in Athens, Ga., where he was the state's Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior and senior. Ranked the No. 8 overall player for the Class of 2018 by Perfect Game and the second-ranked pitcher in his class. Drafted by Colorado in Round 38 in 2018, but didn't sign.

Freshman (2019): Starred as a weekend starter for Vanderbilt's 59-12 (23-7 SEC) squad that won the conference, conference tournament and national title. Made 10 SEC regular-season starts, going 6-4 with a 4.03 ERA, 58 strikeouts and 13 walks. Struck out at least six in 11 of his last 14 starts. Threw 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball to beat Michigan in a College World Series elimination game, with 11 strikeouts and two walks. Threw six shutout innings to beat Mississippi St. in the CWS, allowing one earned run, one walk and six strikeouts. Was the winning pitcher in both games. Pitched a 19-strikeout no-hitter to beat Duke in an elimination game of the Nashville Super Regional, walking two batters and hitting another. Struck out eight, didn't walk anyone and scattered seven hits in 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball vs. Indiana St. in the Nashville Regional, while earning the win. Beat LSU in the SEC Tournament with five innings of one-run ball. Won at South Carolina, throwing 5 2/3 innings of three-run ball with seven strikeouts and a walk. Earned victory over Auburn with seven innings of two-run, 10-strikeout, one-walk baseball. Earned a win over Arkansas with seven shutout innings, seven strikeouts and no walks. Beat Florida, allowing two runs in six innings, with two walks and six strikeouts. Picked up first career win with three shutout, five-strikeout innings vs. Pepperdine.

Sophomore (2020): Beat UConn in season debut with six shutout innings of one-walk, nine-strikeout baseball. Struck out 12 in six one-run innings to beat Illinois-Chicago.

Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: There are a lot of reasons Vanderbilt won a national title in 2019. At the end, none of them were bigger than Kumar Rocker.

It wasn't just no-hitting Duke in the most dominant single-game performance I have ever witnessed in person; it was doing that in an elimination game 24 hours after the Blue Devils battered VU pitching for a season-worst 18 runs. It wasn't just beating Michigan in Game 2 of the CWS finals; it was doing it in another elimination game with the whole baseball world watching on the heels of that Duke performance. In between, he shut down an elite Mississippi St. lineup in Omaha on a hot day without ever looking vulnerable.

Before that end-of-year run, maybe it's fair to say that Rocker's season was good, and perhaps not great. But even then, Rocker's outings were fairly polished. He was victimized a bit with some bad luck with BABIP and stranding runners, and so if you saw through that noise before the breakout, it wasn't hard to see better things coming.

Rocker had struggled in his last outing of 2020 (UCLA) and held back slightly with some health concerns, but was expected to be fine for the SEC season-opening series with Kentucky. His first two outings were dominant and I think it was fair to assume more was coming. It's a shame we didn't get 2020 to see what Rocker could do, and there's a bit of built-in expectation in the rankings that end-of-2019 Rocker was what we'd have seen.

Even without that, Rocker had the best postseason of any VU athlete in history and that counts for a lot. Assuming a full and healthy 2021 season, Rocker could leave Vanderbilt as the greatest pitcher in school history.