Vanderbilt Beats Louisville 7-0; Forces Elimination Game Tomorrow

So far, Vanderbilt is 2-0 in elimination games in the NCAA Tournament. The problem with elimination games, however, is one is enough. Still, the Commodores played as good a game today as they have in a very, very long time. The star of the game, and the tournament thus far, has to be Richie Goodenow, who made just his second career start, and his first of the season. Goodenow's line, 9 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, 2 BB, 2 SO, speaks for itself. He gave the Commodores exactly what they needed: a long outing that saved the bullpen. The fact that it was a scoreless, complete game is gravy.

The real story though, is the bats. For the first time of the tournament, the Commodores were able to get hits at critical moments. The team clearly built on their 9th inning performance against Illinois State in their second game of the afternoon against Louisville. The stat that jumps out is me is 5 batters left on base for the Commodores, the smallest number of the tournament. In their previous 3 games, the Commodores stranded 41 runners, including 17 in each of their contests against Illinois State, and 7 against Louisville in their first meeting of the regional. Beyond that, Commodore fans can take heart in Curt Casali's 2-4 performance. Prior to this game, Casali was 0-10, and wasn't even in the starting line-up against Louisville in their first game. If Casali's bat comes alive, that makes the Commodores line-up considerably more dynamic. Whether that continues tomorrow remains to be seen.

The big question is who will pitch for Vanderbilt. Eric Jones hypothesizes on the VUCommodores blog.

VSL will be live-blogging the decisive game tomorrow. As more details emerge about tomorrow, we'll be sure to let you know.