Vanderbilt received its fourth straight invitation to the NCAA Tournament Monday, and fifth in seven years under coach Tim Corbin, and will be the third seed in the Louisville regional. The Commodores face second-seeded Middle Tennessee State (43-16) in the opening round on Friday.
The other teams are host Louisville, the No. 1 seed and the Big East champions, and No. 4 seed Indiana, playing its first NCAA game in 13 years. Louisville has an unusual turf field, but the Commodores have the advantage of having played there before.
"I like the way that park plays," Corbin said. "You have to really strike a ball to get it out of there and the field turf plays slow."
Vanderbilt (34-25) will start ace Mike Minor in the opening game Friday and will follow up with Sonny Gray and Caleb Cotham in the next two, the same trio that pitched solid starts to get the Commodores into the SEC championship game, combining for nearly 24 innings pitched and allowing just six earned runs. Cotham and Minor both threw complete games.
"It lines up right the way we want it to," Corbin said. "Minor, Gray, Cotham."
Corbin feels his team has gotten some of its swagger back with a strong run through the SEC tournament before falling to LSU, the No. 2 team in the nation, in the title game.
"I thought we went down there and played really well," Corbin said. "We played loose and played with confidence. To go into Hoover and win our first three games and then fall to an excellent LSU team in the finals is quite an accomplishment for our guys."
Vanderbilt and MTSU have met twice this year; the Blue Raiders won the first game in Murfreesboro 8-0, and the Commodores took the other match-up in Nashville, 15-7.
"We are familiar with them," Corbin said. "I guess that's a good thing in some ways."
Travis Young and Brandon Barca contributed to this article.
