It was a banner year to remember for Vanderbilt sports. The football team achieved a historic win over #1 Alabama and would go on to win a bowl game. Both basketball teams earned NCAA tournament berths. Unfortunately, despite all the highs over the past 10 months Vandy athletics would come to an unceremonious end with the VandyBoys bowing out of the NCAA tournament in the opening weekend yet again, falling to Wright State 5-4.

It's rare that the baseball team, which has long been considered the flagship program of the university, would have the most disappointing season of all the high-profile sports, but given the expectations for this particular team heading into the postseason that is certainly the case.

There were a lot of questions about legendary baseball coach Tim Corbin coming into the season. Although his extensive resume, which includes two national championships, speaks for itself, the VandyBoys had flamed out in the regionals three straight years after their national runner-up season in 2021.

Throughout the last half of this season, it appeared Corbin had answered most of those questions and he would have the last laugh. The VandyBoys finally exorcised their Tennessee demons by taking two of three in Knoxville, and then swept Kentucky to finish the regular season. Vandy would carry that momentum into the SEC tournament going 3-0, including a 10-0 run rule win over Tennessee for good measure, to take the SEC tournament crown.

In total, the VandyBoys won 8 straight games heading into the NCAA tournament. They were the hottest team in the country, so hot they were awarded the #1 overall seed. It appeared the VandyBoys, as we knew them, were back. And then they weren’t.

Sadly, the team we had seen for the last three years, and much of the early part of this season, would make its unwelcome return at the worst time. The hitting has been the most maligned aspect of the struggles in recent years. It had even reached the point that Corbin, who rarely makes coaching changes, would move on from hitting coach Mike Baxter in the offseason.

The changes didn’t help this weekend. After managing just enough to rally and scrape by Wright State by a score of 5-4 in the opening game, they would fall 3-2 to Louisville before the season ending rematch against the Raiders. Vandy would only hit for a dismal .132 average for the weekend.

The lack of hitting was clearly a source of frustration for Corbin. The normally stoic coach snapped at the Tennessean’s Aria Gerson after she asked him a question regarding his team’s offensive struggles.

"You play playoff baseball, Aria? I mean, it's tough pitching on both sides," said Corbin. "I mean, we're pitching hard. They're pitching hard. Two good teams. You realize that, right? These are good pitchers on the mound. These are battles. We just didn't win the battle. Don't go searching for, like, a lot of ancillary bullshit. It's just we didn't get the hit.”

It was a bad look for Corbin, and it was compounded by what was arguably his worst coaching decision in recent memory that also occurred in the game. With Cody Bowker on the mound the VandyBoys trailing Louisville 3-2, Corbin inexplicably brought in Connor Fennell – the regular Sunday starter through the season and the projected starter for the following game – instead of trusting the game to his bullpen.

"He was the right guy, he could keep the game there [at 3-2]," Corbin would say after the game. "There wasn't a doubt in my mind whether we were gonna score another run or two, he was the right guy to hold the game right there."

The move backfired, as the VandyBoys failed to generate another run and even worse Corbin put his team behind the proverbial 8-ball with his starting pitching. He would go with Austin Nye in their final game. The true freshman was a reliable midweek starter during the regular season but had little experience in high leverage situations against quality competition. That would show early, as Nye was roughed up quickly for 4 runs in the first inning, forcing Vandy’s anemic offense to try to play from behind in the third consecutive contest.

The decision perfectly encapsulated complete meltdown of the entire team – coaches and players -- over the weekend. The team appeared to completely lose the confidence they were playing with heading into the postseason. They were tight and pressing, and it filtered down from the head coach. Now the Super-Regional drought extends to four seasons. But of the four early exits, this failure was the most surprising and most disappointing. I’m not sure anyone truly believed Vandy was the best team in the tournament, despite the top seed. But they were certainly better than Wright State.

This team earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first #1 overall seed to fail to even make it to the regional final. As we head into the long offseason, noise surrounding Corbin only becomes louder as fans will continue to debate what the ceiling is for the program in this now era of NIL and the transfer portal. And now we wait as Corbin searches for answers. Again…