May 30, 2014

Beede Sparkles for Vandy

By Gary Johnson

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

@garyjohnson50

NASHVILLE - Vanderbilt junior right-hander Tyler Beede turned in his best performance of the year, striking out a career high 14 batters in the top-seeded Commodores 11-0 shutout of fourth-seeded Xavier on Friday night in the NCAA Nashville Regionals.

The start of Friday night’s game was delayed nearly two hours due to lightning, but the wait didn’t seem to bother Beede (8-7), who limited Xavier to four hits, three singles and a double, during his dominating eight-inning outing.

The projected first-round draft pick fanned two batters in six of the eight innings he pitched and threw 114 pitches, including 75 for strikes.

“I just thought it was a well-pitched game by Tyler and very good game in a lot of different ways,” Commodores coach Tim Corbin said. “He controlled the count and had to come back from long offensive breaks, which isn’t always easy. He set the tone for our team and got a lot of outs by himself. He limited free bases and changed rhythms. I thought his change was good all night. I was very proud of him, and we were able to separate ourselves later in the game. But it started on the mound. There’s no question about what he did or gave us tonight. Also a good catching performance as well by Jason Delay." 

T.J Pecoraro threw a scoreless ninth frame to complete the Commodores’ eighth shutout on the year.

“I just wanted to enjoy the moments with the coaches and players and just go have fun,” Beede said. “It was obviously a Regional game but I wanted to treat it like any other game, pound the strike zone and let the team play. Obviously in the sixth, we broke it up a little bit. It was a fun game to be a part of and good for us to get the first win in the Regional and go on tomorrow to face Oregon.

"I certainly wanted to attack with the fastball and challenge hitters. Sometimes that’s how it works out. You can make an adjustment of guys around your fastball. But if not, you kind of stick with what’s working for you. There through the second time going through, we just mixed in some off-speed pitches to get them off-balanced a bit.”

Vinny Nittoli got the start for the Musketeers (29-28), going five innings.

“I think Tyler Beede had his good stuff today. I thought his slider was on," Xavier head coach Scott Googins said. "Our scouting report was to lay off the slider, and our guys were having a tough time picking it up and he was throwing it for strikes. He looked pretty good today, and give him credit on that.”

Runs were hard to come by early as the game was scoreless through three innings.

Both pitchers were perfect after the first two innings before Beede gave up a pair of one-out singles in the top of the third but retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.

Nittoli gave up a leadoff single and a walk in the bottom half of the third. but the Commodores failed to push across a run.

Vanderbilt (42-18) struck first, taking advantage of a walk to Vince Conde followed by clean-up hitter Zander Wiel being hit by a pitch. Xavier Turner stepped to the plate and converted a perfect hit-and-run with a RBI double into right field scoring Conde for a 1-0 advantage.

The Commodores pushed across another run in the fifth when Jason Delay singled, advanced to third off a two-out double by Bryan Reynolds then scored on a wild pitch to go up 2-0.

A seven-run sixth inning put the game away for Vanderbilt, as the Commodores sent a dozen batters to the plate, collecting hits from Rhett Wiseman, John Norwood, and Turner.

Vanderbilt added seven runs in the seventh. Delay was hit by a pitch then Dansby Swanson ripped a double. Delay scored off a single by Bryan Reynolds. Conde was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Turner's double and single with three RBI's paced Vandy’s 11-hit effort.

Michael Moore's double and single led Xavier at the plate.

Notes:

*Vanderbilt improved to 33-26 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including 9-3 in the regional round over the past four seasons.

* Vandy's 11 runs matches its NCAA Tournament record.