(OMAHA, Neb.)—-Michigan, as Joe Donovan described it after their win over Texas Tech to advance to the CWS Finals, has been riding a wave—a big wave. The bats had put up 22 runs in their two previous games going into Game Two, and their pitching staff had executed flawlessly despite their use of only three pitchers. Things were going really good for the Wolverines—almost too good.
Vanderbilt couldn’t overcome the early deficit in Game One, but that was partially due to the early struggles of Drake Fellows at the mound. He couldn’t consistently find the strike zone early on, and gave up a few key hits in the first two innings. Once he got settled in, Vandy looked like Vandy again. The Game One loss can be easily described as uncharacteristic. On top of that, freshman sensation, Kumar Rocker, was set to start on the mound in Game Two for the Commodores.
For Michigan, even with the momentum of winning Game One, there was a lot of confidence on the Vanderbilt side going into Game Two.
Kumar Rocker and Tyler Brown blanked the red-hot Michigan bats from the start, to go with a few crucial mistakes from the Michigan pitching staff to help Vanderbilt take Game Two and force a winner-take-all Game Three.
Both starters got comfortable early on, and Isaiah Paige was in just his fourth start of the season for the Wolverines. He was the first Michigan pitcher to throw in the CWS this year that is not Kauffman, Henry, or Criswell.
It wasn’t until the fifth inning that the first run was put on the scoreboard. Paige gave up a leadoff single, which was his last batter faced as Benjamin Keizer came in to relief pitch. Ty Duvall reached base on an error at shortstop the next at-bat, and the error advanced Harrison Ray to third base. Austin Martin would then sacrifice groundout to third, bringing in Ray and giving the Commodores a 1-0 lead.
The very next inning is when Michigan’s mistakes started costing them, and costing them big-time. With runners on second and third base, Jack Weisenburger came in to pitch for Michigan. He would throw wild pitches in back-to-back batters that would bring in both base runners, and extend the Vanderbilt lead to 3-0. Philip Clarke would hit a solo home run the next inning to add their last insurance run and put the score at 4-0. It wasn’t the best day for the Vanderbilt bats, finishing with less hits than in Game One and scoring two of their four runs off of wild pitches—but it didn’t matter with Kumar Rocker on the hump.
Rocker pitched as advertised. The freshman phenom is anticipated to be the MLB’s top prospect within the next two years, and he has been marvelous since the beginning of the postseason. He is 10-1 in his last 11 starts, and 4-0 in the NCAA Tournament. To go with it, he has a 0.96 ERA and 44 strikeouts in just 28 innings of work since the NCAA Tournament has started. He went 6.1 innings with 11 strikeouts and one earned run in just three hits on Tuesday night.
Tyler Brown has relief pitched in every CWS game but one this year for Vanderbilt, and gave up an unearned run off of a single from Ako Thomas in the seventh-inning—but that would be the only hit he’d give up in his 2.2 innings of work. The Vanderbilt pitching staff was near flawless en route to a Game Two victory over Michigan, by a final score of 4-1.
Jack Blomgren went 2-4, and Thomas had the lone RBI for the Wolverines. Clarke went 2-5 and grabbed his ninth home run of the season. With that win, Vanderbilt faces Michigan in a winner-take-all National Championship game tonight at 6 p.m.
