When it comes to the NCAA baseball tournament, having a regional in Nashville is pretty much a sure thing.
Vanderbilt has hosted a regional nine times and the Commodores are making their 17th straight postseason appearance. Vandy, as the No. 6 national seed, would host a Super Regional should it advance.
The Commodores finished second in the SEC West Division with a 19-11 record, one game behind Florida. But Vandy was able to win the SEC tournament, including an 11-6 win in the semifinals before beating Texas A&M for the title.
That victory solidified Vanderbilt’s national seed and gave it an overall mark of 40-18. Nearly half of those wins came in March where Vandy got on a major roll and finished 18-2 for the month.
Surprisingly, not one Commodore player was an All-SEC First-Teamer, but three made the Second Team (outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., starting pitcher Devin Futrell and reliever Nick Maldonado) with two making the All-Defensive Team (Bradfield and third baseman Davis Diaz) and RJ Austin was on the All-Freshman squad.
Austin, a second baseman, finished the regular season with a .267 batting average with seven home runs and 42 runs batted in. Vandy is led by RJ Scheck with his .309 average, 13 homers and 57 RBIs.
Bradfield hit .286 for the season with six homers and 33 RBIs. Futrell, who is likely to start in Game 1 of the regional, was 7-3 with a 3.44 earned run average. Maldonado was the Commodores’ closer as he had eight saves and a 1.45 ERA.
Vanderbilt isn’t going to outslug anyone, but it’s not going to beat itself either in the field. The Commodores made just 38 errors all season. By comparison, Oregon, which is considered a very good defensive team, committed 50 errors.
The Nashville Regional begins for Vanderbilt at 4 pm PST as they play 4-seed Eastern Illinois on the SEC Network.