Championship Series Game 1 (Best of Three): Vanderbilt 9, Virginia 8
Vanderbilt had a scoring explosion in the 3rd inning including the 9th run of the inning from catcher Jason Delay (Brad WIlliams/WBR)
We were promised a pitcher’s duel, and we got a slugfest. Coming into Game 1 of the 2014 College World Series Finals, Virginia’s Nathan Kirby and Vanderbilt’s Walker Buehler together had allowed just one hit — a single — in 12.1 innings pitched between the two sophomore future first-rounders. As it turned out, the law of averages caught up to both phenoms as neither guy would last beyond on the third inning on Monday night.
Virginia gave Nathan Kirby an early lead in the bottom of the first, jumping on Walker Buehler right away. First, lead off hitter Branden Cogswell singled on Buehler’s first pitch of the game. Then three hitters later Joe McCarthy blooped a double down the line in left field to set the table for left fielder Derek Fisher who ripped a two-run, two-out single to right center, giving the preseason No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers a 2-0 lead.
The train went way off the rails two innings later for Nathan Kirby and the Cavaliers as Vanderbilt set a TD Ameritrade Park record for most runs in an inning, hanging a 9-spot on the Cavs in a historically nightmarish top half of the third. The inning started with Kirby registering his fourth strikeout of the game as he retired designated hitter Chris Harvey on three pitches. That would turn out to be the last out recorded in the game for the Virginia ace. Two walks sandwiched around a Tyler Campbell double loaded the bases. Bryan Reynolds’ infield single to shortstop cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 2-1.
Kirby proceeded to walk the next three hitters to put Vanderbilt ahead 4-2 despite the Commodores managing just a single hit up to that point. He induced what should have been the second out of the inning on a grounder to Mike Papi at first, but the Virginia slugger couldn’t handle the ball and all runners advanced, including the fifth run of the game for Vanderbilt.
“I just couldn’t find my release point,” Kirby said of his struggles. “It hadn’t happened all year, but it happened tonight … It kind of hit me in the first inning, but I tried to fight through, and it got me there in the third inning.”
After Whit Mayberry replaced Kirby, Harvey redeemed his strikeout earlier in the inning with a sac fly to right in foul territory. Mayberry didn’t go without a little wildness of his own as he drilled the next hitter up after Harvey, catcher Jason Delay. That brought Campbell, who had doubled and scored earlier in the inning, up for the second time in the frame. The sophomore third baseman delivered the biggest hit of the game with a bases-clearing double down the left field line to make it 9-2, Commodores, after 2.5 innings.
The Cavaliers began to claw their way back into the game beginning in the bottom half of the third. An RBI single by Kenny Towns cut the deficit to six, and Brandon Downes followed that up two hitters later with a two-run single to make it 9-5,
Vanderbilt, after a 12-run third inning between the two teams: “I thought his attack was slightly up,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said of Buehler’s outing. “They did a great job with two outs now – you have to give them some credit. They hit some balls on the head. I think the one inning where he hit a batter (McCarthy) with two outs, and hung a breaking ball to Downes. I thought that was a key moment right there. He had him 0-2, and could have buried the ball. He just didn’t. It was one of those nights where starting pitching started out okay, but both were replaced.”
Virginia relievers Whit Mayberry and Austin Young held the Commodores in check the rest of the way while the offense continued to chip away at the deficit. Catcher Nate Irving and shortstop Daniel Pinero drove in a couple more in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 9-7. In the 8th, the Cavs had their best chance to tie the game. They got the first two runners on, then 3-hole hitter and team RBI leader, Mike Papi bunted the runners over into scoring position. An RBI ground out by right fielder Joe McCarthy made it 9-8, but Commodores’ reliever John Kilichowski induced another grounder up the middle off the bat of Derek Fisher. Vanderbilt shortstop Vince Conde made a beautiful scoop as the ball took a sharp hop, but he recovered and fired a strike over to first to get Fisher by a step and preserve the one-run lead heading into the 9th.
Junior right-hander Adam Ravenelle came on for the Commodores in the final inning and retired the side in order to close out the Game 1 win for his second save of the College World Series, and put Vanderbilt one win away from the first national championship in school history.
“It’s nice to be up 1-0,” said Vanderbilt sophomore second baseman Dansby Swanson, “but that’s not where our mindset is right now. We’re just focused on still playing the game. It’s the same game regardless. You have to go out there, play, compete, and just play the tournament like we always talk about. We’re not going up there thinking we’ve only got one more. Just go out there and try to play our best ball.”
Vanderbilt will be the designated home team for Game 2 on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm (CT). Probable starting pitchers are Tyler Beede for Vanderbilt and Brandon Waddell for Virginia.