By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — For the first time all season as they prepare for a critical road series this weekend against the Tennessee Volunteers, the Vanderbilt Commodores are coming off a losing SEC series. No one anticipated that the number one ranked Commodores would have a tough tie against the Georgia Bulldogs at home. Georgia came in having won only three of nine conference games, while Vanderbilt had lost only one time against an SEC foe.
Three days later, Georgia had taken two of three games and dealt the Commodores their first loss in a series this season. The Bulldogs hit more home runs off number one starter Kumar Rocker (three) during his five-inning stint Thursday than he had surrendered in his entire career prior to that game (two). Rocker suffered his first loss in a 14-2 rout, while Georgia once more blew out the Commodores Saturday 9-1. Vanderbilt still has a glittering 25-5 overall mark and 9-3 now in the SEC, but head coach Tim Corbin wasn’t happy with what he saw throughout that series.
“It was tough,” Corbin told USA Today Tennessee. “It was a tough week for us all around. I didn’t think we performed well there (Tuesday’s 5-4 win over OVC club UT Martin) and we certainly didn’t perform well throughout the week.” In addition to every pitcher except Friday’s winner Jack Leiter getting hit hard by Georgia, Vanderbilt also had fielding woes both Thursday and Saturday that cost key runs and prolonged innings.
Still, no one expects any team to go through an SEC season without incident. Now Vanderbilt heads to Knoxville for a weekend series against one of Tennessee’s best teams in many years. Despite losing to Florida Sunday, the Volunteers are tied with Vanderbilt atop the SEC’s Eastern Division at 9-3, and are 28-5 overall. They begin the week ranked number four in the nation, and their conference mark after 12 games is their best since 2004. They’ve won their first four SEC series for the first time since 1970.
The Volunteers first face North Carolina on Tuesday, while Vanderbilt plays East Carolina. Their weekend series begins Friday and continues through Sunday.
