Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin's team had its back against the wall as the regular season waned on and delivered.

It was an unfamiliar feeling for Corbin's group, which narrowly hit the bar of 13 SEC wins but won it won when it needed to most.

Now the Commodores embrace that feeling and what they experienced during that stretch.

"I feel like must-win games are the best," Vanderbilt outfielder Calvin Hewett said on Selection Monday. "I think that's what brings out the most competitive fibers out of all of us."

As Vanderbilt enters Clemson and its NCAA-leading 18th-straight regional, it carries that mindset with it.

Its players know that this is it. This is what they'll be remembered by on West End.

"We have a lot of guys that want to win and don’t want to go home," Hewett added. “We didn’t know if we were going to get our name called last week. A lot of the guys were really down after the loss vs. Kentucky."

Corbin seems to believe that a loss like that may have been the turning point for his group.

"I thought there two moments that stuck out [as turning points]," Corbin said. "The Sunday win against Tennessee was certainly a big moment and then traveling to Kentucky, that Friday night. When we lost and they won the SEC championship on that field and there was a lot of celebration and we're sitting there taking it in.

"I think that was probably a low point for all of us."

Corbin acknowledges that low point, but also looks back at it and ones similar to it as a point of confidence.

Perhaps that's when the veteran coach found that his group possessed the makeup that it needed to.

"They weren't shook. Their foundation wasn't shook. We didn't have issues."

As a result, that low point in Lexington turned into a turning point for a team which strung off four straight in the fallout of that Friday night.

It feels as if Vanderbilt has played its best baseball since.

Corbin feels as if it has a chance to continue to do so.

“I think we’ve gained a significant amount of confidence in the last couple of weeks," Corbin said. "As I told them; we don't have all-conference players, we don't have a pitcher of the year, we don't have a player of the year but you know what; it doesn't come down to that. It comes down to the sum of the parts and if the sum of the parts are greater then we're gonna give ourselves a good chance to compete well and that's how I feel about them."

Vanderbilt catcher Alan Espinal has been a leader and a voice for a team that needed it. As the Commodores enter the big moment his confidence projects on them.

"I think we all saw what we're capable of, now we just carry it on."

As Vanderbilt showed what it was capable of, it also gave itself an opportunity to continue to do so. Perhaps more than it even has to this point.

Now it's time for it to go and do it on the big stage.