How Vanderbilt Baseball Came Back Against Missouri

Vanderbilt pitcher Alex Kranzler stepped onto the mound to begin the bottom of the fifth inning with his team trailing 8-3 in a game it needed to win. There may have not been reason for fans to be optimistic at the time, but the game was far from over.

Kranzler was in a rhythm from the get-go as he stuck out two of his first four batters in the fifth inning. Before long, Kranzler became the straw that stirred a five-run Vanderbilt comeback. In a series where Vanderbilt’s pitching staff was struggling mightily for the most part, Kranzler was the one that helped settle the game down and was a catalyst for the Commodores’ much-needed win.

Kranzler's outing lasted 4.2 shutout innings, allowing just three hits and walking two batters while striking out seven guys. It did not take Kranzler long to get locked into the game. Though he allowed a couple leadoff hitters on base, he punched right back by forcing Missouri to leave runners on base.

Kranzler’s outing was big not just in the sense that he pitched well and was the best out of any Vanderbilt pitcher in the game, but also from the standpoint that he kept Vanderbilt in the game even when the deficit seemed too big to bounce back from.

But ultimately, the lead was not too big. Eventually, Vanderbilt’s bats had Kranzler’s back and started doing their part.

It all started in the sixth inning when Logan Johnstone started the inning with a home run to dead center field before Vanderbilt put runners on second and third with one out later in the inning. That’s when the Commodores struck back with two more runs off a sacrifice groundout and a Ryker Waite single to cut the deficit to 8-6 going into the rain delay.

Vanderbilt just kept chipping away. The urgency of where Vanderbilt’s season stood began to show. After Johnstone came away with a sacrifice groundout in the seventh, Rustan Rigdon tied the game with a leadoff home run in the top of the eighth inning.

The momentum shift was clear. Missouri had Vanderbilt’s fate of its season on the ropes, but the Commodores refused to quit.

It all boiled over into the 11th inning when Waite hit a solo home run to right field to give Vanderbilt its first lead since it was 3-0 and Johnstone tacked on two more insurance runs with a two-RBI single before Wyatt Nadeau helped close the deal with his 2.1-inning outing to save Vanderbilt’s season…for now at least.

Not much changed from Vanderbilt’s win in the second game of the series. The Commodores are still in “must win” mode. There was no NCAA Tournament bid given out, nor was there likely much movement in the RPI.

The biggest takeaway from Vanderbilt’s comeback win is that it has at least temporarily avoided a nightmare scenario in which its only hope to make the NCAA Tournament would be to win the SEC Baseball Tournament. However, even if Vanderbilt were to win out its last four games, a deep run in Hoover would probably still be needed.

But for now, Vanderbilt is still relatively alive in the grand scheme of the season. There was not any pressure that was lifted off it, though. Saturday night’s win was simply the next step in trying to clinch an at-large bid. The question is if Vanderbilt is able to build off tonight’s win. It cannot afford to lose this series, nor a loss next weekend.

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