Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin astutely remarked after his Commodores got into the Southeastern Conference Tournament that, despite being swept at the end of the season, the team was on an equal field with everyone else going in, no matter what their seed.
His No. 8 squad is proving him right.
Vanderbilt advanced to the SEC championship game with an 11-1 rout of Arkansas (34-22) Saturday afternoon, its third win in a row and third over the Razorbacks this season, and now has a chance to claim its second title in three years. The Commodores (34-24) are the second 8th-seeded team in a row to advance to the finals of the tournament and have reached the the championship game for the fourth time in six years.
The game was stopped after seven innings due to the 10-run mercy rule. Caleb Cotham came through with a terrific pitching peformance, going all seven innings, allowing one earned run on five hits while striking out seven.
Cotham has been bothered by a right knee injury and had primarily been used out of the bullpen in recent weeks, but he agreed to make the important start.
"He pitched very, very well and I am proud of him," Corbin said. "I am proud of the way he came back. He gets a complete game out of it."
Cotham, Mike Minor and Sonny Gray have combined to pitch 23 innings and allow just six earned runs in their three starts in the tournament, with Minor also throwing a complete game.
"Coming into today, I felt pretty good," Cotham said. "I was feeling pretty confident, and I felt kind of normal."
Cotham primarily challenged the hitters with fastballs early on, a strategy that worked when he struck out 12 when he faced them in April, but as the game wore on he adjusted to keep the Razorbacks off-balance.
"Later in the game, I was getting tired and I knew I was going to have to pitch a little better," he said. "I threw some change-ups and some sliders to keep them honest."
Both teams went scoreless the first three innings, but Vanderbilt jumped on Arkansas starter TJ. Forrest in the fourth, with Curt Casali starting things with a home run to left field, his ninth. Joe Loftus singled in a run, and Brian Harris hit a two-run double off the wall to make it 4-0.
The Commodores piled it on reliever Mike Bolsinger in the fourth and fifth innings, blasting him for six hits and four earned runs while he just recorded one out.
Steven Liddle, Casali, Aaron Westlake and Andrew Giobbi hit four singles in a row to score two runs, and Jason Esposito drove in another run with a sacrifice fly.
They added two runs in sixth and seventh innings to give themselves a 10-run lead and stop the contest.
Everyone in the line-up had at least one hit and scored at least one run. Loftus and Esposito, who had been struggling, combined to go 3-6 in the 8-9 spots with 3 RBIs and two runs scored.
"The fact that we have balance in our line-up helped a lot," Corbin said. "It is something that we have talked about because we have gotten some key performances from the middle, but we hit through the line-up (today) and that is the reason for the double-digit win."
They now await either Georgia or LSU in the finals on Sunday.
