How Vanderbilt Adjusted To Its Unexpected Advancement At CWS

OMAHA—When you win a game to advance to the CWS finals, you typically know it. You’re aware of the stakes coming into the game, you manage the game with that in mind, and in the end, you celebrate accordingly. 

That doesn’t apply to Vanderbilt this year, though. It advanced to the finals when the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee declared Saturday’s winner-take-all bracket final game against North Carolina State a no contest and the Wolfpack were eliminated from the tournament due to Covid-19 protocols. NC State had played with just 13 players—nine position players and four pitchers—in Friday’s game, a 3-1 loss to Vanderbilt, and it hoped to get more players back for Saturday’s rematch. But after further testing produced more positive tests, the game was forfeited. 

The Commodores found out the same way just about everyone else did, either by seeing the statement at 1:10 a.m. CT from the NCAA, hearing about it on social media or TV on Saturday morning, or in the case of Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin, a text message that he noticed upon waking up in the middle of the night. 

“I woke up at about 1:30 and found a message from (athletic director Candice Storey Lee) regarding the NCAA’s decision, and at that point right there, I rolled over and woke my wife up and we stayed up the rest of the night and just talked because we wanted to process it,” Corbin said. “I felt like when the boys woke up, I wanted to give them some type of information. And that’s really all I cared about was them, as far as getting up and seeing that type of message.”

From there, the team met Saturday morning, and although the players had undoubtedly begun to receive word of what was going on by that point, Corbin walked them through what happened and what would come next. 

Then, instead of getting ready to go play a game against the Wolfpack at 1 p.m., the Commodores had an unexpected off day. 

“We hung out with one another. We went and ate. Nothing really out of the ordinary. We just kind of hung out,” first baseman Dominic Keegan said. “But you know, we took the news in. We heard it from Corbs. We met about it and we put it past us.”

Corbin began his press conference Sunday with a message recognizing the difficulty of the situation for NC State and stating that the preference as competitors would have been to face off with the Wolfpack as scheduled and decide a winner on the field. 

“We certainly sympathize with their team, their fan base too, understanding that we don’t know the level of hurt that they are exposed to right now, but we certainly recognize it,” Corbin said. “None of us wish to be in this particular position. We’re one of the six teams that were matched up with them. We certainly would want to play them on the field or have played them on the field, but we didn’t.”

It was a sentiment echoed by righthander Kumar Rocker, who had just pitched the previous day in the win. 

“I heard the news in the hotel room, and I was upset about it,” he said. “That’s pretty much it. I feel sorry for NC State.”

Corbin also seemed to indirectly address internet speculation that he or others associated with Vanderbilt had a hand in pushing the testing issue with NC State as a way to gain an advantage with the possibility that additional positive tests would rule more players out. 

As part of an answer about how his team has dealt with an unconventional last couple of days, he stated flatly that what was going on off the field wasn’t a concern. 

“They are doing fine,” Corbin said of his players. “It’s all your perspective on things. The world didn’t end. We’re playing baseball. For us we get to move forward. I understand the other side, I do. We’re very empathetic and sympathetic to that. But we have no control over that, regardless what anyone insinuates or what anyone says. We’re just playing baseball. That’s all we can do. We stay in our lane.”

With several days to get back into a normal routine, the Commodores now move on to the CWS finals, which begin Monday night against Mississippi State. 

One of the impacts of Vanderbilt not playing a second game against NC State is that it didn’t have to turn the ball over to Jack Leiter in that start. Instead, he’ll be rested and ready for game 1 against MSU, if that’s the choice Corbin and his staff make. 

“We’ll see how he feels today and then we’ll determine who is going to pitch,” Corbin said. “But we need time today. These kids have thrown as of late, and we’ll just take care of the health of the kids first before we determine who is going to start.”