Saturday’s SEC Tournament semifinal round in Hoover, Alabama was originally slated to start at noon local time. The Vanderbilt Commodores and Tennessee Volunteers opened up the morning fanfare at 10 a.m. CT as patrons rushed into The Hoover Metropolitan Complex.
As thousands of fans continued to pour into The Met and fill the outer berms, Vanderbilt quickly ran out to a five-run lead by the bottom of the second inning. Tennessee failed to respond offensively and suffered its second shutout of the season.
How Hoover Started
It was two New England natives shutting down the Vols 10-0 and shipping them back to Knoxville, Tennessee, to wait on their regional fate.
Vandy’s Cody Bowker worked four innings of shutout baseball and recorded his third win of the year. It was Bowker’s first SEC game in which he didn’t allow a home run since April 5 against Florida. The right-hander only surrendered three hits against Tennessee on Saturday. Bowker is from Thornton Academy in Maine and transferred to Vanderbilt from Georgetown for his season of draft eligibility. He has an expanded pitch mix, with a low-releasing fastball in the low 90s. On Saturday, the slider and changeup were also effective, leading to nine strikeouts for the righty.
New Hampshire native Connor Fennell then spelled Bowker. The two Commodores combined for 11 strikeouts and blanked the Vols in the seven-inning, run-rule victory.
Rebels Stay Alive in Hoover
The second part of Hoover’s Saturday doubleheader featured an Ole Miss team looking to build to its hosting resume. The Rebels had to tame a LSU squad that end Texas A&M’s season the night before. Ultimately, it was Ole Miss earning its fifth SEC victory in the past six attempts, defeating the Tigers 2-0. The Rebels pitching has allowed just three runs across three games in the SEC Tournament.
Gunnar Dennis is now 4-1 on the season, as he came in relief for Cade Townsend in fifth and notched the win. Connor Spencer earned his seventh save when LSU’s pinch-hitter, Josh Pearson, flied out to center field.
Ole Miss got just enough support from its bats, as Will Furniss and Campbell Smithwick drove in the game’s only runs. Furniss sent an off-speed mistake just over the left field wall with two outs in the top of the first inning. Smithwick drove in an unearned run via a single in the fourth.
Quotes From Hoover
Vanderbilt’s pitching in Hoover has been stellar so far. Its anchor JD Thompson struck out 11 batters in a 6-1 victory against Oklahoma. That performance was a prelude to the shutout of Tennessee. Head coach Tim Corbin is thankful for his front-end guys.
“Yes, I mean, I don’t take that for granted,” Corbin said. “You’ve got two teams — the one we played today, even I feel like they’re an Omaha team from a pitching standpoint and a hitting team, as well. They had to come through the back ends of this tournament, which is very difficult to do. It’s a lot of games, a lot of baseball.”
Ole Miss head coach, Mike Bianco, is also grateful of his collective on the mound, but also credits his pitching coach for how well the Rebels have executed down the stretch.
“Well, you know, obviously the credit goes to the players,” said Bianco. “They’re the ones out there throwing and performing. But a lot of credit has got to go to Joel Mangrum. We said it yesterday in the press conference here, how well we’ve pitched it down the stretch, and not even down the stretch, like a week or two, but how strong we’ve been on the mound the second half of conference play on both sides from the starting pitchers to the bullpen and even with an injury to Braden Jones; we’ve been able to sustain that.”
