By Ron Wynn
A combination of tough pitching and some late-inning offensive heroics from South Carolina resulted in the Vanderbilt Commodores dropping a 6-3 series finale Saturday at home.
The loss ended the Commodores’ SEC season with a 17-13 record, and prevented them from being one of the top four teams in the league. Instead, they were forced into an early round game on Tuesday against the Tennessee Volunteers, a team that took two of three from them during a series in Knoxville last month.
It was also a disappointment in that the Commodores’ usually reliable bullpen was unable to stop the Gamecock’s rally in the eighth inning.
South Carolina starting pitcher Wil Crowe struck out nine over seven-plus innings, while limiting Vanderbilt to two runs. The Commodores took a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning on a double by Bryant Reynolds that scored Xavier Turner, and a singer from Zander Wiel that brought Reynolds home.
But the relief corps faltered, starting with Adam Revenelle. Revenelle entered the game with a spotless record (3-0) but ended up getting his first loss. He loaded the bases, then was relieved by Ben Bowden. Bowden’s first pitch was hit by Kyle Martin for a run-scoring single, giving South Carolina a 3-2 lead.
Then Joey Panakake and DC Arendas had consecutive singles off Brian Miller, which eventually made it 6-2. Dansby Swanson had a run-scoring single for Vanderbilt in the bottom of the inning, but South Carolina got a strikeout from Xavier Turner with two on that ended both the inning and Vanderbilt’s final scoring threat.
South Carolina had also won the opener, but the Commodores bounced back to take the Saturday contest 9-3 in one of their finest offensive showings all season. They scored four runs in the opening inning and were never in any trouble. Vanderbilt had five singles during that inning.
The Commodores had another five hit flurry in the fifth inning, scoring four more runs. Wiel had his fifth home run of the season during that frame, one of three extra base hits for the Commodores during the fifth.
Former relief ace turned starter Carson Fulmer had his fifth consecutive win since moving into the rotation. He did have some control problems, walking six during his 5 2/3 inning performance. His scoreless streak also ended in the second inning. Fulmer had half his walks in that inning, one of them a bases-loaded walk to Patrick Harrington that snapped the streak.
Still, the Commodores took three of their final four SEC series, and kept alive their goal of getting back to the College World Series by finishing strong in league play. They came into the South Carolina series ranked number 15 in the country, and their final record of 40-16 shows how good they were against non-SEC competition (23-3).
But a couple of wins in the SEC Tournament, which runs from Tuesday through Sunday in Hoover, Alabama, would go a long way toward making them one of the 16 teams that gets to host a regional in the forthcoming NCAA Tournament.
If they won the opener, Vanderbilt had to face LSU on Wednesday. The team that won that game would oppose the winner of the Ole Miss game. The opening games were single elimination, with subsequent games being double elimination up to the weekend semifinals and finals.