The #2 Vanderbilt Commodores proved all season that they were one of the best college baseball teams in the country. After losing the opening game in the best of three College World Series Championship Finals against Michigan, they proved it again by winning two straight games including a resounding 8-2 win in the winner take all national title contest on Wednesday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
Michigan (50-22) got off to the lead early. Jordan Brewer singled in a run in the top of the first to make it 1-0 Wolverines. Vanderbilt responded when Pat DeMarco hit a solo homer in the bottom of the second. The difference in the game was the third inning. DeMarco walked with two outs and the bases loaded to make it 2-1, and Stephen Scott hit a two run single to center to put the Commodores in control at 4-1. JJ Bleday padded the Vanderbilt (59-12) lead with an RBI single in the fourth, and Ethan Paul added a sacrifice fly in the same inning to add extra insurance making it 6-1. Harrison Ray made it 7-1 with an RBI single in the seventh, before the Wolverines got one back in the eighth on a double from Blake Nelson. Philip Clarke ending the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.
Michigan ends their season having made an improbable run, including beating Illinois in come from behind fashion in the Big 10 Tournament to get an at large bid into the NCAA field. The Wolverines got hot at the right time knocking off #22 Creighton and Cincinnati in the Regionals, before upsetting the top seed in the country #1 UCLA in three games in the Super Regionals in California to advance to Omaha. They knocked off Texas Tech twice and Florida State to reach the final round. UM won the first game of the Championship Final series 7-4, before Vanderbilt flexed their muscles with a 4-1 game two win behind standout pitcher Kumar Rocker and then Wednesdays 8-2 win. In the final game of their season, Jesse Franklin had two hits and five other Wolverines had one hit each. Karl Kauffmann (4-4) took the loss on the mound allowing five earned runs on five hits, with five walks and five strikeouts in 3.0 innings. The school was seeking their first college baseball title since 1962.
Vanderbilt wins their second title, with their first coming in 2014. Clarke had three hits, Paul had two, while DeMarco and Scott had two RBI each. Bleday reached base twice and had an RBI in what may his final game in a Vandy uniform. He was picked fourth by the Miami Marlins in this years MLB draft. He led the country with homers (27) and was 15th in RBI (72). The Commodores only lost two games in a row all season, at #19 Texas A&M in March and at #4 Georgia in early April. Mason Hickman (9-0) got the win on the mound holding down a good Michigan offense only allowing one run on four hits, with three walks and 10 strikeouts in 6.0 innings. Hickman caps off an undefeated record on the hill for the Commodores for the 2019 season, with one of the top earned run averages in the country at 2.05.
