Vanderbilt's relievers save day against Stanford

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It was finally time for pitcher Tyler Ferguson to get into this postseason thing for Vanderbilt baseball.

The sophomore right-hander, the team's No. 3 starter much of the season, went unused last weekend as the Commodores swept through the Nashville Regional. He also didn't pitch at the Southeastern Conference tournament two weeks ago and hadn't thrown in a game since a no-decision start May 17 against South Carolina.

In the first game of the Nashville Super Regional here today, Vanderbilt starter Tyler Beede was struggling despite being staked to a 10-0 lead over Stanford through three innings. After the Cardinal whittled the lead to 10-6 by the fifth inning, Ferguson was called upon to shut the door in relief.

And he did, allowing only two hits and no runs over 2 2/3 innings to help secure an 11-6 victory.

"That first hitter was a little nerve wracking," said Ferguson (8-3), who was making his first relief appearance of the season after 14 starts. "I haven't been out there in a while, but was able to get that second guy out. From there, I just started getting ahead of guys and kept attacking them."

With a win Saturday, 20th-ranked Vanderbilt (45-18) can advance to its second College World Series next weekend in Omaha, Nebraska, and first since 2011. To make its 17th CWS appearance, two-time national champion Stanford (34-25) must win on Saturday to force a third game on Sunday in the best two out of three format.

Both Saturday's game and the "if necessary" game on Sunday start at 2 p.m. CDT.

"Tomorrow is a different day and a different set of circumstances," said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin of his team's approach for Saturdays' game, although a win means going to the College World Series again.

Last year, the Commodores also hosted a Super Regional, but lost two straight games to Louisville to be denied the CWS berth despite being ranked No. 1 in the country for much of the season.

"Nothing has really changed," Corbin said. "Nothing was on the line last weekend (at the regional). You have to play the tournament.  You can't play the circumstances. You can't play the what ifs." 

Last weekend, the Commodores had gotten stellar winning starts from Beede (eight innings), Carson Fulmer (eight innings) and Walker Buehler (nine innings), so Ferguson wasn't needed. But he sure was on Friday, as the Cardinal rallied for six runs off Beede in the fourth and fifth innings in front of a stunned sell-out crowd of 3,626 at Hawkins Field.

"I really have to congratulate Tyler Ferguson for stopping the game where it was," Corbin said. "There was a good amount of momentum from Stanford, and you could see that they were trying to get back into the game. 

"He came in and did a tremendous job. He's a kid who, because we have pitched so well, has not been able to touch a baseball in the last three weeks."

It had been an emotional past 24 hours for Beede, who pitched arguably his best game of the year last Friday, notching a career-high 14 strikeouts in a win over Xavier to open the regional. Thursday night, the junior right-hander was selected in the first round and 14th overall by the Giants in the Major League Baseball entry draft. 

"I thought he tried to handle it the best he can," Corbin said of Beede, who was drafted out of high school in the first round of the 2011 draft by the Blue Jays, but turned down a multi-million dollar offer to attend Vanderbilt.

"I don't know how a 21-year-old can navigate his way through that," Corbin said. "It's a thing where he has been a first-round pick before and now he has another first-round opportunity. But he handled it the best he could."

While Beede struggled for the Commodores, Stanford starter John Hochstatter (10-3) was just plain bad. He was lifted early in the second inning with nobody out after giving up five earned runs and walking five batters in just one complete inning pitched. Thing is, the All-Pac 12 pitcher had won 10 straight games before having that streaked snapped at the regional last weekend.

"Hochstatter pitched phenomenally (late in the season)," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said of his junior left-hander. "We wouldn't be here without him. But that was probably his poorest outing. He just was out of synch and didn't have command of any of his pitches, which is unlike him."

Stanford reliever Chris Viall wasn't much better, allowing five runs on six hits as the Commodores built the lead to 10-0 through three innings. Helping slow the Commodores with one run over the final 5 2/3 innings was freshman reliever Brett Hanewich.

"We just gave them too much early," Marquess said. "Obviously, you can't give a quality team like Vanderbilt many free base runners, and we did. Now credit to them, they got a couple of hit bases with people on base when they got on there, which kind of broke it up early. 

"But then we were fortunate enough to get the same thing coming back. We had a couple of walks and base hits and got back in it. But we were just too far behind."

Vanderbilt was paced offensively by freshman All-American left fielder Bryan Reynolds with a game-high four hits. Third baseman Zavier Turner had two hits, while seven other Commodores hit safely in the 14-hit attack. 

"It's a pretty cool feeling," Reynolds said of being just one win away from the College World Series. "We just got to play how we play, and everything will work out."