(OMAHA, Neb.)—-Going into Game One of the College World Series Finals, Vanderbilt had won 33 of its last 36 games, and boasted a .314 team batting average with the second most runs scored in the nation. On paper, the Commodores were a shoe-in to win both games. Unfortunately for them, they were matched up against the hottest-team in college baseball. A team so hot, they’ve only used three pitchers in the entire College World Series to this point because it’s all they need. A team that, after today, has beaten three top-ten teams in the last month for a combined five wins, including a total of 23 runs in the last two of those wins. Vanderbilt was favored, but odds don’t play a factor with a National Championship on the line.
After yet another quick start from Michigan, the Wolverines rode the early wave to stay hot and take down Vanderbilt in Game One, 7-4, off of another great pitching performance from Tommy Henry and the Michigan bats.
Michigan has been jumping out on opponents the entire College World Series. They have scored a combined six runs in the first inning of each game they have played in Omaha, the rest of the field has a combined two runs. The Wolverines are also the only team to score in the first inning of every game, and they did again in Game One. The bats stayed hot from scoring 15 runs against Texas Tech on Friday, and Jordan Brewer started it off with a RBI-double to right field bringing Jesse Franklin in to score from first base. Two at-bats later, Blake Nelson hit an RBI-single to left.
Drake Fellows struggled to get settled in for Vanderbilt. He couldn’t find the strike zone and in the next inning, Fellows walked the first two batters of the inning before giving up an RBI-double from Ako Thomas. A fielder’s choice groundout would bring in another run before the end of the second frame, and it was 4-0. Michigan was in control early.
Vanderbilt’s bats got jump started in the bottom half of the second inning when Ty Duvall responded with an RBI-single, followed by a passed ball that brought in Harrison Ray from third base to cut the deficit in half heading into the third inning.
No offensive action would occur until J.J. Bleday hit his 27thhome run of the year, which leads the nation, to bring the deficit to just one in the bottom of the sixth inning. Everyone was waiting for the Commodores to kick it into high-gear and run away with the game. It just didn’t happen.
Tommy Henry was great yet again after throwing for ten strikeouts and only giving up three hits in his complete-game shutout against Florida State in his last appearance. He threw for 8.1 innings, and throwing for eight strikeouts and giving up three earned runs. This Michigan team, because of rest and the consistency of their starting rotation, has used just three pitchers heading into their fifth game at the CWS.
The very next inning, Jimmy Kerr, who has hit three home runs in the last two games, blasted a two-run bomb into right field to bring the Michigan lead up to 6-3. Kerr has consistently delivered in Omaha, batting .388 with nine RBI’s in just his four games at this year’s CWS.
In the top of the eighth, Joe Donovan led off the inning with a solo-bomb to left to add an insurance run for Michigan, making it a 7-3 game. The comeback wasn’t going to happen, and the Wolverines were actually going to continue their tear by controlling the most well-rounded team in baseball for nine innings. Vanderbilt would add one more run in the ninth, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the level-headed Wolverines.
Michigan continues to shock the baseball world after stealing Game One, and they are now just one win away from winning the school’s first College World Series title since 1962. Five Michigan players finished with at least one RBI, led by Kerr who had two. Game Two starts tomorrow at 6 p.m. with a potential National Championship at stake.
