May 31, 2014

Fulmer Fuels Vandy

By Gary Johnson

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

@garyjohnson50

NASHVILLE – Some habits never get old.

Such is the case for top seed Vanderbilt after claiming a 7-2 victory over second-seeded Oregon on Saturday night in the Nashville Regional. For the eighth time in the past nine years, including six in a row, the Commodores have advanced to the Regional finals.

Vanderbilt (43-18) plays Sunday afternoon’s Oregon (43-19)/Xavier (30-28) winner on Sunday night at 7.  A win and Vandy moves on to the Super Regional. A loss would force a game on Monday evening.

“It feels good to be in this spot,” Vanderbilt left-fielder Bryan Reynolds said. “Playing postseason baseball is so fun. These past couple games have been the most fun I’ve had playing this sport. You obviously know it’s there but we just have to take it game-by-game and focus on what is directly in front of us.”

Commodores starting sophomore right-hander pitcher Carson Fulmer (6-0) turned in an outstanding performance allowing only two runs while scattering three hits over eight innings. He fanned five and walked two.

“Similar to last night, I think it starts on the mound,” Vandy coach Tim Corbin said. “Carson certainly did that, he came out and established his pitches and was very aggressive as always. He was very eager to pitch. He was here at 10 a.m. this morning lying on the couch and watching baseball, getting ready to go.

“You know what you’re going to get with [Fulmer]. We played well, we had to. That’s a very good team. They do everything right. We had to play well to beat them and I thought we did.”

Fulmer’s performance didn’t go unnoticed by Oregon’s skipper.

“We got outplayed,” Ducks coach George Horton said. “Somebody asked me a question yesterday about momentum, and I hate to be a prophet, but one of my quotes was, ‘In baseball, the momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher.’ And Carson Fulmer, as advertised, was a handful for us.

“I know what our typical plan is against a guy that throws 96 or 98 and that’s to disarm the fastball. If you’re going to sit on that off-speed stuff you’ve got no chance. That guy looked like Sonny Gray [former Vanderbilt ace and current Oakland A's pitcher] to me, and I think Carson’s fastball is better than Sonny’s if I’m not mistaken.”

After opening the season in the bullpen, Fulmer has dominated as a starter. He has only allowed three earned runs in just under 42 innings in that role.

“They’re a good aggressive team, I knew they’d come out and try and jump on fastballs early in the count,” Fulmer said. “Early on I was able to make my secondary stuff work, later on in the game I pitched to contact and let my defense work.”

The difference in this game was the fifth frame when the Commodores pushed across five runs to take a commanding 6-0 lead.

“Nolan [Rogers] got us started with a well-hit ball and we were able to bunt him over,” Corbin said. “I think at that point we were just trying to play for a run and push ahead, but when you have guys that feed off of each other things open up. We were opportunistic, Dansby’s [Swanson] ball was hit hard but yet may have been caught, Bryan [Reynolds] lifted a ball over the second baseman and Vinny [Conde] was able to hit a ball up the middle. We were able to advance runners but we were also fortunate in putting balls in the right places. The two-out RBI hit by Rhett [Wiseman] down the line was big to cap that inning.”

Vanderbilt collected 13 hits, including a pair of doubles by Wiseman.

Jeff Gold (10-3) got the start and took the loss for the Ducks. Steven Packard drove in both of Oregon’s runs.

“I don’t think today is a disappointment, I think today is a lesson,” said Oregon first baseman A.J. Balta, who scored twice. “You can’t take anyone lightly, and we weren’t taking them lightly but, anybody can beat you on any day so you got to show up to the ballpark ready to play.”