The baseball gods have not been particularly kind to East Carolina in NCAA Super Regional play and Friday was no different where (4)Vanderbilt(44-15) grinded out a 2-0 game one win over the Pirates to get off to a 1-0 start in the 2021 Nashville Regional.
It was just the second time ECU(43-16) has been shutout the entire season in a game where the Pirates struck out an uncharacteristic eleven times.
Commodore starter Kumar Rocker put together a stellar performance and improved to 13-3 on the mound while Luke Murphy got his eighth save of the season for Vanderbilt. Gavin Williams was solid as well for the Pirates but suffered just his first loss of the season to fall to 10-1.
“Just a really well pitched games by two studs. Rocker was just a tick better. I think they got three extra base hits and we didn’t get any extra base hits. He was really tough today,” said ECU head coach Cliff Godwin, “He was as good today as anything I’ve watched on video and he made it really hard on us.”
“Gavin (Williams) was really good too. We’ve got to be able to score and scratch a couple of runs for us to win a game like that, but Rocker - I tip my hat for him and the two guys who came out of the bullpen for Vandy,” said Godwin, “I’ll take Gavin Williams over anybody in the country and I know we got beat today, but we ain’t sitting here in Nashville without that guy so I’ll take him every single step of the way.”
Veteran Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin had high praise for Rocker’s Friday start on the mound for Vanderbilt and the defense behind him that held (13)ECU scoreless.
“That was a tremendous baseball game, well pitched on both sides. Certainly our guy was outstanding again and just enjoyed watching him pitch for the last two and a half years. To get a front seat to watch this kid compete has been special. Never taking it for granted, he gives us everything he’s got,” said Corbin, "You come in facing a very good offensive team who can score in numerous ways and he did what needed to do. He got the leadoff hitter, he was efficient with his pitches, he was landing his breaking stuff. He was good with his fastball and he just commanded his heartbeat in such a great way in this particular game.”
“We played enough defense behind him. It was solid. We caught the ball and did what we needed to do that way,” said Corbin, “C.J. caught another good game and threw out a runner which was really important at the time early in the ballgame and we just scratched out enough runs. Runs were very expensive today and we kind of knew that was going to be the deal.”
ECU gave up just one run until the eighth inning when Javier Vas made an early impact on a grounder to second base that scored the first Vanderbilt run of the game in the second inning.
Connor Norby’s 101st hit of the year on a base knock to right field in the top of the eighth was Kumar Rocker’s final home pitch in a Vanderbilt uniform. Rocker(13-3) lasted 7.2 innings and 107 pitches with 11 strikeouts and just three hits and just three walks on the day to pick up the win. That brought on right hand reliever Nick Maldonado who got Thomas Francisco to pop out for the third out in the eighth.
“We just had to be out there. I think Cooper said in the dugout, how does it feel to be in your last time pitching there,” said Rocker, “That’s when it kind of set in and I’m glad I didn’t take it for granted and I’m glad we’ve got one more to play to get to Omaha.”
“Rocker did a great job. He attacked us and we didn’t really stick to our game plan at all. Gavin pitched an unbelievable game and gave us every shot to win,” said ECU first baseman Thomas Francisco, “We didn’t do a good job of stringing bats together at all today. We’ve got to do that if we want to win. Tomorrow is another day and we have to win two at this point so it does us no good to worry about what we did today. We’ve just got to learn from it, get it going offensively and the pitching staff keep doing their thing.”
Enrique Bradfield, Jr. managed to outrun Gavin Williams to first base to beat out a Vanderbilt base hit in the bottom of the eighth. Seth Caddell’s bobble of a Williams pitch advanced Bradfield to second base. Carter Young’s bunt moved Bradfield to third with just one out for Dominic Keegan who hit a grounder to Ryder Giles who seemingly threw Bradfield out at home plate but the video review showed that Bradfield beat the tag to make the score 2-0.
That proved to be the end of Gavin William’s Friday start on his 111th pitch of the day. Williams went seven and a third innings giving up seven hits, a career tying 13 strikeouts and two earned runs with just a pair of walks in what would prove to be his first loss since May of 2019. That brought on A.J. Wilson in relief.
“I did feel comfortable. It was just another baseball game,” said Williams, “Can’t worry about the name on the other jersey, just worry about the present moment really.”
When Wilson walked the next batter, Jack Bulger, ECU immediately went with right-hander Cam Colmore who struck out Parker Nolan to end the eighth frame.
Vanderbilt right-hander Luke Murphy came on in the top of the ninth to shut the door for the Commodores.
The two teams will play again on Saturday at high noon EDT with the Pirates facing an uphill climb and a trip to Omaha on the line.
