Michigan blasts Vandy in Game 1

OMAHA, Neb. | Game 1 of the finals of the College World Series was everything Vanderbilt didn’t want it to be.

Michigan pounded three Vanderbilt pitchers for 14 hits, including two home runs, beating the Commodores, 7-4 on Monday night at TD Ameritrade Park. Four Wolverines had multi-hit games, including shortstop Jack Blomgren, who had three.

Vandy fell behind 4-0 after an inning and a half, but rallied to get within a run. But Zach King gave up a two-run home run to first baseman Jimmy Kerr in the top of the seventh and Patrick Raby gave up a solo shot to catcher Joe Donovan in the eighth.

Meanwhile, Michigan (50-20) ace Tommy Henry threw 8 1/3 innings and limited VU to seven hits and three runs. It's the fourth time Henry (110) has eclipsed 100 pitches in the NCAA Tournament, and followed last week's complete-game, three-hit shutout of Florida State in the CWS.

“Well, I think the difference was certainly Tommy Henry,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "Their aggressiveness offensively, but you have to give that kid a lot of credit. He threw a lot of strikes. He minimized damage when he had to. When he found himself in a little bit of trouble, he was able to negate our offense. He did a really good job. He didn't allow many base runners, and as I said, he just kind of forced the action a little bit with his fastball and his off-speed stuff.

"He made it very difficult on us, and they played some pretty good defense.”

Right-hander Jeff Criswell, who’s been a starter for the Wolverines most of the year, but closed for the third time in Omaha, got the last two outs on nine pitches.

Vanderbilt right fielder J.J. Bleday blasted a solo homer, his 27th of the season, in the sixth.

VU (57-12) has to beat Michigan on both Tuesday and Wednesday to win the national title.

Kumar Rocker will start for the Commodores on Tuesday. Michigan has not announced a starter, but coach Erik Bakich mentioned Criswell as a possible starter, or “a committee-type-of-thing” for Tuesday.

Falling behind in counts is a recipe for disaster, and that was the blueprint for what went wrong on Monday.

Starter Drake Fellows walked DH Jordan Nwogu on five pitches to start the game. Jesse Franklin singled to center on the next pitch, but center fielder Pat DeMarco threw Nwogu out taking third.

Relief was temporary. Right fielder Jordan Brewer then hammered a 3-1 pitch into the right-field corner to score a run; he settled for a double after tripping rounding second.

With two out, third baseman Blake Nelson singled through the left side for a second run.

Fellows walked Michigan’s No. 7 and 8 hitters, Blomgren and catcher Joe Donovan, to start the second before the next man, Ako Thomas, doubled to left to score the third run. A fourth scored on a Franklin ground-out.

“We didn't command the count early, and they jumped us, and just our inability to get on the right side of the count led them to some very positive situations and aggressive swings,” Corbin said.

Vandy got two back in the bottom of the inning. Catcher Philip Clarke singled to left on the first pitch and with two out, second baseman Harrison Ray smashed a single down the line off Nelson’s glove. DH Ty Duvall laced a single to center and then a passed ball cut the lead in half.

King got a big strikeout of Nwogu to get Fellows out of a two-on, two-out jam in the sixth. When Bleday blasted one over the bullpen and into the seats in right, the Commodores were within one.

But the game turned for good in the seventh.

Brewer reached on an infield single that went to replay but stood. Kerr then drove an 0-2 pitch well out to right for a two-run shot. It’s the first homer King’s given up all season.

Raby entered in the eighth and gave up a long homer to Donovan for the final UM run.

Game 2 starts at 6 Central and will be televised on ESPN.

Vanderbilt hasn’t lost two in a row since dropping the last two of a three-game series at Georgia on April 6-7. That’s a span of 36 consecutive games, entering Monday evening. It’s lost consecutive games twice all year, period.

This is the same situation the Commodores faced two weeks ago against Duke. Rocker threw a complete-game, 19-strikeout no-hitter in Game 2, and then the Commodores blasted the Blue Devils 13-2 in the next one to get to Omaha.

Corbin was asked about how Vanderbilt has “responded” to losses all year.

“That word, respond,” he answered. “They’re an older group. They've been in a hole before. Not many times, but whether it's during the course of the season or during the course of games, they've been able to navigate their way out of these situations.”

The Wolverines have talked often about playing loose throughout the postseason. Michigan barely got into the NCAA Tournament and the Commodores, a preseason No. 1 and the tournament’s overall No. 2 seed, are perceived to have a target on their back.

Was Monday a matter of one team playing with nothing to lose, and another team not? Corbin’s not buying it.

“There's no narrative,” he said when asked about it. “It's baseball. It's one team playing better than the other. I don't give a crap where they came from. They got into the tournament. Once they got into the tournament, they're a good team. Fresno State did it, Coastal Carolina did it. It doesn't matter. Once you get into the tournament, then it's a new lease on life.

“They played well. They were the better team tonight.”

The Commodores walked six men on Monday. With Rocker, who allows free passes (that’s walks and hit batsmen) at a seven percent rate, and likely Mason Hickman (eight) starting a potential Game 3, VU has its best two starters left, not to mention closer Tyler Brown (four), who’s pitched two innings or longer 10 times this season.

Fellows threw 51 pitches through two innings, 63 through three and 89 through four. But his ability to get through 5 2/3 innings on 114 pitches perhaps saved some valuable arms—Jake Eder was throwing earlier in the game, but never pitched—for later.

After four of Michigan’s first eight batters scored, Fellows got two ground-outs and a line-out to end the second. He struck out the side in the third.

In the fourth, he ran into trouble after Blomgren got just enough of a pitch to get an infield single, and Donovan followed with a single. But three ground-outs later, he was out of that.

Fellows struck out two in the fifth around a harmless fly ball. He started the sixth with a strikeout, then gave up another soft infield single before exiting after a wild pitch and a fly-out.

“It really just came down to throwing strikes,” Fellows said. “I couldn't find the strike zone really well the first couple innings and kind of got in some hitters' counts and predictable counts, and they were just jumping on the fastball and jumping on the pitches they thought were coming in predictable counts.”

The Commodores didn’t make plays most of the night in most phases of the game.

Third baseman Austin Martin, who’s mostly been money at third, couldn’t come up with a pair of slow rollers that wound up infield singles. Catcher Philip Clarke made a rare throwing error in the seventh to put a man on third, though it didn’t score.

Martin was also thrown out at third trying to take an extra base on Paul’s single to right. It turned a potential first-and second, one-out situation into one on with two away in the eighth. Clarke struck out to end the inning.

Vanderbilt also dodged bullets on multiple occasions, as UM got 20 runners on and left 12 on base. Four times, UM left multiple men on.

“We didn’t cash in on all our scoring opportunities. We could have been better,” Bakich said.

M1: Brewer double to right scored Franklin. M, 1-0

M1: Nelson single through third scored Brewer. M, 2-0

M2: Thomas double to left scored Blomgren. M, 3-0

M2: Franklin ground-out scored Donovan. M, 4-0

V2: Duvall center to single scored Clarke. M, 4-1

V2: Ray scored on passed ball. M, 4-2

V6: Bleday homer to right. M, 4-3

M6: King homer to right off King. M, 6-3

M7: Donovan homer to left off Raby. M, 7-3

V9: Ray sacrifice fly to center scored DeMarco. M, 7-4