The Commodores took a 3-2 win over Tennessee in the first game of the series behind Connor Fennell’s lengthy start.
NASHVILLE – Vanderbilt starting pitcher Connor Fennell walked off the mound bumping his chest, roaring in celebration in the middle of the seventh inning following his ninth strikeout of the night. On a night when Vanderbilt desperately needed a long and quality start from one of its starters, Fennell gave just that and more.
Fennell went 7.1 innings, collecting nine strikeouts and allowing just three hits on the night. He went his first 5.1 innings with a no-hitter bid before allowing a double in the top of the sixth to lose the no-hit bid. Overall though, Fennell looked like he was feeling it. He looked confident, sharp and on point all night long in a game that felt like a must-win in the sense of getting the team to just feel good about itself. “All four pitches were working for me. I was just executing inside the strike zone and not letting them get the pitch they were looking for. But the biggest thing is just sticking to my process every day and just trying to do the best I can to get the team the win,” Fennell said. The length of Fennell’s start was much needed. Vanderbilt’s pitching situation seemingly could not be worse at the moment between the announcement of Austin Nye’s season being over and the five other pitchers on the staff that are currently out with injuries. Fennell needed to go a long way Friday night to help save the available bullpen arms for the rest of the weekend.“I thought he did a hell of a job going as deep as he did. He was throwing a lot of strikes, didn’t really hurt himself and only the leadoff hitter in the eighth got on,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said. Going into the game knowing the pitching scenario, Corbin knew that Fennell was probably going to have to be in the game a while, especially if he was dealing on the mound. In terms of how he managed him in the game, Corbin saw the confidence Fennell was playing with and decided to send him out into the eighth inning. “We probably could have taken him out after the seventh, but he was very motivated to stay in the ball game all night. He wanted to see it through, but at the same time, he was up around the finish line. But he had good adrenaline and then after that we just felt like that was the right time to take him out,” Corbin said.One of the other storylines of the night was the job that Brennan Seiber did coming into the game in relief of Fennell. Seiber went 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit, no runs and striking out two Tennessee batters. Seiber’s big moment came in the eighth inning where Tennessee had two on and just one out. The Volunteers were threatening to take a lead late in the game, but Seiber forced Tennessee into a double play to keep the game at 2-2 and ultimately extended the game into extra innings. In a turbulent pitching situation, Seiber has been one of the guys out of the bullpen that has started to earn some trust. In terms of his role going forward, Corbin said that Seiber is a guy he feels like he can turn to in high-leverage situations. “Seiber did a good job behind Guth. He came into a sticky situation and he did a hell of a job. He’s been good for us and I’m happy for him,” Corbin said. “He’s just going to get the ball when it's in those situations. Leverage situations, Seiber’s getting the baseball.”In addition to the clutch pitching, Vanderbilt could not have won without its defense making the plays it needed to, preventing Tennessee from taking a lead. From picking guys off the bases to turning double plays, the Commodores made key defensive stops to pull off the win. “”Reynolds' throw was different because if we don’t throw out the runner, that guy scores and it’s a different deal. So, we played some good defense and we certainly got good pitching, Corbin said.Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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