Why Tennessee series is even more crucial for Vanderbilt baseball after sweep by Georgia

Throughout 2024, strike-throwing was one thing Vanderbilt baseball could hang its hat on.

The Commodores generally have had one of the top strike-throwing pitching staffs in the SEC. That wasn’t the case in a weekend sweep at Georgia. They walked 22, hit nine batters and struck out just 12. Every pitcher who entered allowed a run.

Nine of the 11 pitchers who made an appearance this season had thrown more than 60% strikes going into the series, led by JD Thompson at 69%. No pitcher threw more than 60% strikes in any individual outing this weekend.

The offense wasn’t much better. Vanderbilt had just three hits in a 10-0, seven-inning loss on Friday, and lost 14-4 on Saturday. Only on Sunday, in an 11-7 loss, did the offense pack much of a punch.

The Commodores (32-16, 11-13 SEC) face Tennessee this weekend (May 10-12). They have lost their past five SEC games and need two more wins to safely be in a regional.

Here’s what we learned from the weekend.

Quality starts an indicator

A quality start is when a pitcher throws six or more innings in a game and allows three earned runs or fewer. Vanderbilt pitchers have recorded nine quality starts in SEC play, going 8-1. In all other SEC games, the Commodores are 3-12.

They have struggled to win when the starter cannot give both length and quality. No starter lasted longer than three innings against Georgia (35-12, 13-11).

In the second and third games, the Commodores had chances to come back, but the bullpen struggled to stop any of the bleeding. Miller Green was the best bullpen performer, allowing only one run in three innings Sunday. With one strikeout and no walks, he was the only pitcher who struck out more batters than he walked.

Austin, Kozeal lead sluggish offense

Although the offense gave a poor performance overall, two players who had been slumping had breakout weekends.

RJ Austin, who had been hitting .261 in SEC play, put up two hits in each of the three games, though five of those six hits were singles. The performance raised his conference batting average to .290.

Camden Kozeal had been struggling even more, hitting .186 in SEC play. He had largely fallen out of favor in the lineup but was pushed back in due to an injury to Jayden Davis. Kozeal played Saturday and Sunday and recorded two hits in each of the games, including a double and a home run. He raised his conference batting average to .240.

The rest of the lineup didn’t do enough, though. Kozeal and Austin combined for 10 of the team’s 19 hits. Alan Espinal and JD Rogers hit home runs Sunday, but Vanderbilt put up just seven extra-base hits, compared with 12 for Georgia, including nine home runs.

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Vanderbilt’s road woes

Vanderbilt is 3-10 in true road games overall this season and 2-10 in SEC road games. The only two wins came at LSU, while the Commodores have been swept in each of their other three road series.

That won’t cut it, especially for a team that now is likely to be on the road for the postseason.

The Commodores have given up eight or more runs in 10 of 12 SEC road games, but only once in SEC home games. They have been run-ruled three times in road SEC games and got a run-rule win once.

Vanderbilt has failed to score more than six runs in nine of its 12 SEC road games and been shut out three times. At home, the Commodores have not been shut out and have one run-rule win and no run-rule losses.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on Twitter @aria_gerson.