OMAHA, Neb. – Strong pitching and just enough offense led to a win.
Drake Fellows and two relievers combined to hold No. 7 Louisville to one run, and sophomore third baseman Austin Martin homered twice, as No. 2 Vanderbilt posted a 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon in Game 3 of the 2019 College World Series in front of 22,704 fans at TD Ameritrade Park.
“That was a well-pitched game by both sides,” VU head coach Tim Corbin said, “but certainly our guy was very good. I thought he threw a lot of strikes at the beginning of the game and continued to pound the zone, made it tough on a very good hitting team, a very offensive team that does not strike out, that does not give up.”
After Fellows set the Cardinals (49-17) down in order in the top of the first, Martin smacked the first pitch in the bottom of the first into the stands in left field to give the Commodores (55-11) a 1-0 edge. It was the first leadoff homer in a College World Series game in four years.
“I just tried to keep it simple,” Martin said. “I
definitely did have jitters. I feel like everybody would, coming into this
amazing environment. But I just tried to keep it simple, just tried to see the
ball as well as possible.”
Martin is ready to swing once he steps into the batter’s box.
“I swing at them if they’re strikes,” Martin said of his approach to first pitches. “Usually you’ll see pitchers try to get that first strike away just so they can get into their rhythm. So I’m always ready for that first pitch.”
Vandy looked like it was going to add to its lead in the second. Harrison Ray drew a leadoff walk. He was picked off first, but the throw to second from first baseman Logan Wyatt went into the outfield, allowing Ray to move to third. Ty Duvall also walked, putting runners on the corners. Reid Detmers struck out Julian Infante and coaxed Martin to hit into a double play to end the threat.
The Cardinals would finally get on the board in the fifth. Justin Lavey had a one-out double down the left field line and scored on a base hit by Henry Davis to level the score at 1-1. Lucas Dunn and Wyatt followed with singles to load the bases. Fellows got Tyler Fitzgerald to hit a foul pop to first and Alex Binelas to ground out to first to leave the sacks loaded.
“That’s just good pitches,” Corbin said. “That’s a very difficult group of hitters that he was facing. Fitzgerald is a very good player and a very good hitter, and Binelas, he’s not a freshman. He doesn’t look like a freshman, he isn’t a freshman. But I think just the placement of the fastball. He got in on Fitzgerald and that was a big pop-up, and then it was just the location. The location of the pitch was the key for him, and he was able to do it in a very tough situation.”
Martin would break the deadlock in the seventh. Infante doubled down the left field line with one away before Martin homered again to left to give VU a 3-1 edge. It was Martin’s second straight two-homer game and he raised his season total to 10.
“Julian started off with a double,” Martin said. “It was a huge, huge hit by him. But once again, just not trying to do too much. I have eight other guys behind me that can swing the bat very well, so fortunately it just happened to be me today.”
Fellows (13-1) was solid for seven innings with seven hits, one run, one walk and six strikeouts.
“The plan was to go out there and attack the hitters,”
Fellows said, “and getting all my pitches over for strikes. The fastball
command wasn’t really there last week, and the plan of attack was to just keep
the location down and attacking the zone and not getting too wild.
“And then the offense gave me a little bit of boost, as well, with [Martin’s]
two home runs which gave me a little bit more cushion, a little more
comfortable to just go out there and attack the hitters.”
Zach King started the eighth and got a groundout before issuing a walk to Jake Snider. Closer Tyler Brown took over on the mound. Danny Oriente grounded out to third, moving Snider to second. Brown struck out Drew Campbell to end the frame.
In the ninth, Brown rolled a pair of groundouts before Dunn singled to third. Wyatt sent a fly ball to deep center that was pulled in by Pat DeMarco to end the game and secure the 15th save for Brown.
Vanderbilt is making its fourth trip to the College World Series and is now 4-0 in CWS openers.
“I think this is a very difficult game to play,” Corbin said of CWS openers. “I think it’s the toughest one all teams have to play. To start off in this environment, we’ve done it four times, but it’s not easy. I told them when they got through that game, that might be the most difficult game they play, regardless of what happens after this. But it’s real.”
Detmers (3-4) went 5.2 innings for UL with three hits, one run, six walks and five strikeouts.
“Drake was really good on the mound today,” UL head coach Dan McDonnell. “We had our one chance to score against him, and he pitched out of it. Just like Reid, they had their one chance to score against Reid, and he pitched out of it. It was a hard-fought game, and we didn’t play great, and we still had a chance to win. So I was really pleased with that.”
Vanderbilt will face the winner of the Mississippi State-Auburn game on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. CT. Louisville will meet the loser of that game in an elimination contest on Tuesday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT.