Vanderbilt entered the Men’s College World Series Regionals as the top-ranked squad in the 64-team field, and as winners of the SEC Tournament.
But with their loss on Sunday to Wright State, the Commodores made some brutal baseball history.
The 5-4 loss to the Raiders eliminated Vanderbilt from the College World Series Regionals. Despite entering the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and winning their opening game — against Wright State — Vanderbilt dropped a pair of games over the weekend to end their Omaha dreams.
In the process, Vanderbilt became the first No. 1 overall seed in Men’s College World Series history to fail to advance to a regional final.
The Commodores fell down early Sunday against the Raiders, as Wright State hung four on the board in the bottom of the first inning. An RBI groundout from Gus Gregory brought home Wright State’s first round, and then back-to-back jacks from catcher Boston Smith and shortstop Luke Arnold brought three more runs to the plate.
Vanderbilt entered the top of the ninth trailing 5-1, but pushed three runs across the plate to cut Wright State’s lead to 5-4, with the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second. But RJ Austin flied out to right field to end the game, and Vanderbilt’s season.
“I think they’re all surprising when you’re finished, when you lose,” said Vanderbilt Tim Corbin after the loss. “When you’re out, you’re out. There hasn’t been a day where we’ve been out of a tournament where I don’t feel the same way. Right now at this moment, I feel great about the effort and how hard we played. I just wish the outcome was different for the boys. That stinks. But it’s the nature of the game.
“It’s cruel. It can be cruel.”
History sometimes is.
