Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin scanned the dugout Wednesday night and decided to pinch hit Spencer Jones, who had just 87 at-bats all season, who, less than a year ago, was undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Despite the fact that Stanford ace Brendan Beck was cruising, retiring eight straight batters, six of them on strikeouts, Jones was confident.
It was one of the more memorable finishes in recent College World Series history, and it gave new life to the Commodores, who came to Omaha with the glitz of two high first-round draft pick pitchers, but stayed alive with five lesser-known hurlers and bats that came alive after a fiery speech in the dugout from Corbin.
“We know we played pretty much the worst baseball in four innings, both sides of the ball,” Bradfield said.
Down to their last strike and trailing 5-4, eight-hole hitter Javier Vaz walked, then Jones ran out an infield single, and shortstop Adam Crampton’s errant throw allowed Vaz to reach third.
Stanford, which turned to Beck in the seventh inning, gathered along the right-field line long after the game was over, hugging and not wanting to leave.
“You get in those late innings and sometimes you have those magical endings for one team or another.
In somewhat of a surprise, Corbin started Christian Little, a 17-year-old freshman who reclassified in 2020 and arrived on campus in January.
Little lasted three innings but his defense did him no favors, committing two errors in the first inning.
In the fourth inning, Nick Maldonado came in and quieted Stanford’s bats, allowing one run in three innings.
So just didn’t want to go down — if we were going to lose, we’re going to lose playing aggressively and I just didn’t think we were.
But at the same time I didn’t feel like they were playing like themselves and we needed to snap out of it.
Vanderbilt pulled within a run in the bottom of the sixth inning on Parker Noland’s RBI single but the next inning, Beck arrived and the Commodores’ bats were quiet.
The Commodores can reset now, with Rocker and Leiter available and the nerves of elimination possibly behind them.
“We might not be the most talented team,” Corbin said, “but the thing that you can’t deny the kids is they are tough.