I get chills thinking about it: The swing that changed Vanderbilt baseball

In the biggest moment of Tim Corbin’s first year as a head coach, he couldn’t keep his eyes off the first-base umpire.

The majority of those in attendance at Hawkins Field on that Sunday afternoon in April 2003 watched the baseball explode off Worth Scott’s bat toward the right-field corner.

Not Corbin.

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“I just focussed on David Savage, the first-base umpire,” he said. “I was going to go to my knees either way. If it was going to be foul, I was going to my knees. If it was fair, I was going to go to my knees. I watched David Savage the whole time. Once the ball was hit, you knew it had enough juice, it was just a matter if it was going to stay fair.”

The ball, of course, was fair — a two-run home run from a player with a .185 average off a pitcher throwing in the mid-90s who would, three years later, be the No. 1 pick in the MLB Draft.

And that fair ball, the third home run of Scott’s sophomore season, turned a 5-4 deficit, with two outs in the ninth inning, into the most important win in the history of the program — a win that completed a weekend sweep of rival Tennessee and clinched a spot for Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament for the first time in seven seasons. It was an unlikely turn of events that set the foundation for what would become the preeminent program in college baseball.

Corbin’s thoughts after Savage confirmed the ball was fair?

“Holy cow. Unbelievable.”

The trajectory of Vanderbilt baseball changed forever when Corbin, 41, was named head coach in the spring of 2002. Corbin had spent the previous nine years as an assistant coach at Clemson and had known nothing but winning. The Tigers advanced to the College World Series four times and won two ACC championships during his time on Jack Leggett’s staff.

He inherited a Vanderbilt program that had suffered through 22 consecutive losing SEC seasons and had played in an NCAA Regional only three times, none in the previous two decades. That lack of success did not deter Corbin, who arrived in Nashville determined to build a championship program.

Corbin and his staff quickly established a new set of expectations when fall ball convened. He told the team that it would end the regular season celebrating a berth in the SEC Tournament with a win over Tennessee. The program had not qualified for the league’s postseason tournament — eight of 12 teams made it at the time — since 1996, but he believed the streak would end in his first year. And he had a very specific vision for how that would happen.

Matt Buschmann (freshman pitcher in 2003): I was playing summer ball and heard that we had a new coach. I got a random call one day. I was in a hotel room on a baseball trip. In a very Boston accent he said, “This is Tim Corbin, your new coach. Do you hate to lose?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Do you love to win?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “All right, I will see you when you get here.” That was it.

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Warner Jones (freshman outfielder in 2003): There was definitely, at least in the fall, a sense that there was an expectation that the program was not going to stay the way it was. The way he interacted with us — he made sure (it was known) there wasn’t a spot there for people who wanted the program to be the way it was (in the past). It was a “Junction Boys” attitude. If people didn’t know if this was exactly what they were wanting to do, they were going to do something else and leave and be a student. There was a lot of that going on.

Scott: It was a big change. A big culture change when Corbs came in. A lot of us would say that during the fall, leading up the season, that was the hardest we ever worked.

Corbin worked hard to instill confidence in his team — and he truly believed it could achieve its goals through hard work — but he also knew he was dealing with a limited roster.

Corbin: I just felt like we were swimming uphill. It was just one of those situations where we didn’t have any pitching depth. We threw position players during the midweek. We saved our starters for the weekend — although that year we did throw a four-man perfect game against Western Kentucky — and we were just getting by on grit. That was the team. … We got by on pitching. We could pitch pretty well on the weekend. We didn’t have enough firepower.

The Commodores entered the 2003 regular season with cautious optimism. As Corbin mentioned, depth was a problem throughout the roster, but the team featured some outstanding pitching, including three future major leaguers (Jeremy Sowers, Jensen Lewis and Buschmann) and two others who reached Triple A (Ryan Mullins and Jeff Sues). The season began with a trip to South Carolina for a tournament and a Game 1 date with an unheralded Old Dominion team featuring a hard-throwing sophomore named Justin Verlander. In a battle of future first-round picks, Verlander (No. 2 overall in 2004) outdueled Sowers (No. 6 in 2004) in a 2-0 win for the Monarchs. Verlander threw a complete game, allowing six hits and striking out 12. The game ended when Scott struck out with two men on and two outs in the bottom of ninth.

Jones: It is pretty interesting when you are a freshman and the first pitcher you see is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, you kind of don’t know that’s not the norm. I knew it wasn’t the norm from seeing Vanderbilt play and watching other pitchers. But he was at ODU — it’s not like we were playing Arizona State the first game. There was enough information provided to us by coaches, newspapers and recruiting services that you knew this guy was special, a first-rounder.

Rucker Taylor (freshman infielder in 2003, now the head coach at Davidson): The first pitch Sowers throws, a zillion radar guns go up. Ryan Kosterman is the shortstop. I’m playing second base. I said, “Hey, hey, is this normal?” He started laughing and said, “No, no, this is not normal.” You had Verlander and Jeremy, two high-profile guys. I counted 24 radar guns in the first inning. I don’t know if, to this day, I’ve ever seen that many scouts at a game. It was a pretty cool deal. Sowers was great. Verlander was 96 on his 120th pitch of the game. He was just different.

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Vanderbilt won four straight after that loss to Old Dominion, but as Corbin said, the Commodores spent most of the season “swimming uphill.” They reached a season-high five games over .500 with a 2-1 win (in 11 innings) over Ole Miss on March 21 but dropped their next six to fall to 13-14 overall and 2-7 in the SEC. They played their way into a pretty good position — with regard to reaching the SEC Tournament — by winning three of their next four series. That, however, was followed by another skid (losing five of six to Georgia and Kentucky) that set up a dire situation heading into the final weekend of the season.

Bottom line: To qualify for the SEC Tournament, Vanderbilt (11-16) had to sweep Tennessee (13-14) and have Kentucky (8-18) take at least one game from Florida (11-15) in Gainesville. Possible? Sure. Likely? Not at all.

Vanderbilt won the first two games of the series, 7-4 on Friday night and 9-1 on Saturday, to pull even with the Volunteers at 13-16. But Florida also won its first two games against Kentucky and — at 13-15-1 — remained a half-game up on the Commodores and Vols heading into the final day of the regular season.

The Sunday Florida-Kentucky game started an hour earlier than the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game. Florida led 4-2 in the eighth inning … until Brad Pickrell, UK’s right fielder, hit a grand slam off future major leaguer Darren O’Day. Kentucky held on for a 7-5 win, setting the stage for even more drama in Nashville.

Corbin: (The players) didn’t know (that Florida lost). Now maybe it trickled down into the dugout during the course of the game, (but) I told the public address people that I don’t want the score announced. The phone rang in the eighth inning, I believe, and it was from the (press) box, and they said, “Corbs, Florida lost.” I said, “OK, don’t say anything.” At that point, it probably got me more nervous than I was before not knowing the score. We were down at the time, so we obviously had to win the game. It provided me a window of hope.

Taylor: We didn’t know, but Josh Vander Veldon, our trainer, was kind of acting a little bit different. We kind of assumed it was a possibility.

Buschmann: I probably did not know because I was pitching. It doesn’t stick in my mind that I knew, but I also feel like I kind of broadly knew in the ninth, knowing we can do this if we win.

Scott: I had no clue. Honestly, I didn’t know.

Vanderbilt led 4-3 after six innings, but Tennessee scored a run in the seventh and another in the eighth to take a 5-4 lead. The Commodores were down to six outs — and were facing one of the best young pitchers in the game, Tennessee freshman Luke Hochevar, who would go on to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 MLB Draft.

Fred Corral (pitching coach at Tennessee in 2003, now the pitching coach at Missouri): Luke was a young man who had a lot of upside. When I first saw him as a freshman, I said, “What the heck are you doing here?” He was a good-looking kid. He was 87, 88 when he got to Tennessee. He got into a good strength program and started focusing on just baseball, and within two months time he was a 92, 93 power arm. Being one of our best pitchers, we used him in a number of roles, and in that game he was in the role to shut it down for us.

Hochevar retired the Commodores in the bottom of the eighth. Buschmann, in his second inning of work for Vanderbilt, did the same to Tennessee in the top of the ninth.

Tony Mansolino started off the bottom of the ninth with a routine flyout to right field. Jones then delivered a one-out single to left field. Catcher Jonathan Douillard followed with a slow roller to the right side that looked like it might end the Commodores’ season.

Jones: Douillard, who was not the quickest, hit a groundball. I think it was pretty slow, and the (second baseman) had to come in to get it. I kind of slid toward second base pretty hard. The rules were pretty different back then. I don’t remember exactly what constituted interference. But I was within the baseline. It wasn’t like I was sliding into the grass of the infield. I came in pretty hard. I assumed it was still going to be a double play.

Corral: We thought we rolled the double play. Brian Cleveland, our shortstop, had tried to turn the game-ending double-play, (but) he slipped. It looked from our dugout that he was obstructed, and Coach (Rod) Delmonico went out to the diamond and said, “Where is the obstruction call? Where is the obstruction call?” And Cleveland told him, “Coach, I just slipped. He didn’t make contact with me.” When he came back in the dugout, we were like, “Great, that is tough luck.”

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With two outs and a runner on first, Corbin had some decisions to make. The first one was easy — sending Taylor to pinch run for the slow-footed Douillard. Next, should he pinch hit for Scott, a .185 hitter with only two home runs on the season?

Corbin: It went through my mind. I considered it. We just decided to let him go. He did have strength. He could change the scoreboard. Sometimes the best coaching moves are the ones you don’t make at all. We had kind of ridden with him all year. It was him against (Luke) Hochevar. We were going to let it ride.

Scott: You know, that wasn’t going through my mind. I know it was going through Corbs’ mind, as well as a lot of others.

Jones: I am not sure who you would pinch-hit, but I know Corbin talked about it, the consideration of doing it. But racking my brain, I can’t think of a single person on the bench that could have hit the ball over the fence that I would have put in there for any matchup purposes.

Buschmann: I remember thinking, “We need to get one (run) but also thinking the guy on the mound is throwing 96, so I was kind of trying to figure out how we can string a few hits together because I don’t think a home run was in my mind.”

Taylor: Would you rather have Barry Bonds in his prime than Worth? Yeah, you’d probably rather have Barry. But it is just one of those things — you knew that Worth really, really cared, that he worked his tail off. There are guys, maybe (senior) John Kaye is more likely going to hit the ball out. Maybe (first baseman) Cesar Nicolas with a bit more power. Are your chances a little better in that scenario? Yeah, probably, but I wasn’t, “Oh, crap, it’s Worth.”

Corral: They had Worth Scott coming up and we were thinking, “All we need is a groundball or a fly ball and we are out of this.” You are looking at the odds — 68 percent of all batted balls result in an out and you have a guy, when you look at the numbers, 80 percent of the time the guy is getting himself out. And when he hit that ball …

On an 0-1 pitch, Hochevar tried to sneak a fastball by Scott.

Scott: It was a fastball up and in. I was just thinking, “See a fastball and try to get a good barrel on it.” You see the video, you can tell I overswung a little bit. But I was able to get a good barrel on it for sure.

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The ball was clearly hit hard enough, but would it stay fair? Scott never doubted.

Scott: Probably the only time I can say that in my entire career, but I definitely knew it was (gone). It felt like I stayed inside of it enough that it was definitely a fair ball, though it looked like it had the opportunity to hook some. But it didn’t. It sailed on out.

Buschmann: I had a perfect vantage point of the ball leaving his bat and knowing it was gone. I just remember as soon as he hit I started screaming — because I knew he got it — and sprinted out of the dugout.

Erik Bakich (Vanderbilt assistant coach in 2003, now the head coach at Michigan): My first thought was, “Holy shit!” What you would expect from a 24-year-old first-year assistant coach to say? I almost tackled him going around the bases.

Jones: I thought it was going to be foul. When he hit it and I saw his body language. It looked like he got it, but I thought “Yeah, right. He probably pulled it foul and he thinks it’s going over.” And then you just watch it go out. I don’t think I even saw the ball. I was looking at him and then I looked at Bakich, and Bakich was jumping. That is when I confirmed that it actually went over the fence. Not that I don’t trust Worth — it just seemed so unlikely. And we all jumped over the rails and ran toward home plate.

Taylor, who was on first, didn’t see the ball after it left the bat but soon realized that it had cleared the fence.

Taylor: I am 99 percent sure that their shortstop’s name is (Brian) Cleveland. I was running — on a ball to the right side, the shortstop is covering second — and I saw his whole body change. You can see his exhale. You could see his dejection. Once that ball went out, I was so excited between second and third, and Corbs was jumping up and down yelling.

Bakich: That moment is so fresh in my mind, it feels like it was just a few days ago. I have never been so excited on a field as a coach. Maybe last year, clinching the berth to the College World Series (as the head coach at Michigan), but I would put those two moments on equal ground. At the time, what that meant for the program, just the excitement, the energy. It’s the only time since I’ve been a coach that I’ve actually dove into the dogpile.

Scott: It was an out-of-body experience. I started jumping around. Me and (Bakich) had a moment jumping around. Probably missed the high five, almost fell over around first. Then I realized I have to run the bases. I remember by the time I got to second base, I got really excited, it really sunk in that we won, and I looked up and saw guys barrelling around out of the bullpen. Then I rounded third and sprinted into home. All kinds of emotion. It was cool. Awesome experience.

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As Vanderbilt celebrated at home plate, the Volunteers — and their freshman pitcher — were forced to deal with an excruciating loss.

Corral: There are two sides to that story. What it did for the start of Vanderbilt. You look across the diamond and see Coach Corbin on that dugout bench flat-out exhausted. I am looking at him, thinking, “Wow, good for him.” But I’m contemplating, “What am I going to tell Luke Hochevar?” Luke, when we had that postgame meeting in right field, was in absolute tears. Sobbing. Tears that let you know how much Luke wanted that for us as a team. I am sitting there, basically asking God to direct me in the right way to help me tell this young man something.

There was no magical run the next weekend at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. The sixth-seeded Commodores lost to Auburn 3-1 and South Carolina 3-2 — with Scott making the final out — on consecutive days to end Corbin’s first season 27-28.

But expectations had been set. Confidence had been gained.

Jones: The summer (of 2003) is where everybody turned a corner. I remember being in the Cape (Cod League), when we had the All-Star game, everybody was there, on the all-league team. It was like six guys from Vanderbilt. We all came back (to school) having compared ourselves as individuals to the best players in the country. Seeing that not only were we players that should be there, we were among the best of them. That gave everybody confidence.

Bakich: We didn’t win the SEC Tournament. We didn’t go to an (NCAA) Regional that year, but all those guys, Mansolino, Klosterman, Warner Jones and Nicolas all went to the Cape and were All-Stars. The confidence that gave the program helped catapult the program into a Super Regional the next year, which was obviously — for anyone who is keeping score — is way ahead of what a normal trajectory would be in building a program. Speaks to how fast Coach Corbin turned that thing around.

Vanderbilt has experienced tremendous success in the years since Scott’s home run. There have been four SEC titles, nine Super Regional appearances, four trips to the College World Series and, most notable, two national championships. There have been some big hits along the way — Aaron Westlake’s three home runs in 2011 to secure the first trip to the College World Series, John Norwood’s go-ahead blast in the eighth inning of the deciding game of the 2014 CWS Finals and Jeren Kendall’s walk-off, two-run bomb to beat Cal State Fullerton in Game 2 in Omaha the next season.

But Corbin — and others close to the program — still refer to Scott’s swing in 2003, in a regular-season game, as the most important moment of his tenure.

Corbin: I would have to say it was, just because what it did to that team and what it did to our program. It catapulted our program. I have always referenced that moment as one that jump-started the program because of what we needed to do that particular weekend. We needed to sweep. How we did it was with a hit. We talked about it at the beginning of the year. We talked about celebrating on the last game of the year and it just so happened that it happened that way.

Bakich: It is not just about the home run, it’s about the ignition of the program that goes along with the magnitude of the hit. The moment that it was, having to sweep Tennessee, Luke Hochevar on the mound, being down one bottom of the ninth. Not only did we have to sweep, but Kentucky had to beat Florida just to get (us) into the SEC Tournament. We haven’t been to the SEC Tournament in (seven) years, and then Worth does that and just the confidence, it was immediate.

It was no doubt a special moment for Scott, who grew up a Vanderbilt fan in nearby Hendersonville, Tenn. The nephew of Jeff Peeples, an All-America pitcher for the Commodores in the 1970s, Scott almost never made it to Vanderbilt. He was headed to Vol State Community College until Roy Mewbourne, Corbin’s predecessor, offered him a scholarship during the summer after his senior season in high school. Scott jumped at the opportunity to play on West End and, two years later, would be responsible for one of the most iconic moments in the history of Vanderbilt athletics.

Scott: It’s very humbling. Just happy to be part of the program and was fortunate to be there when we got things off the ground. I get chills thinking about and talking about. It’s cool.

(Photo of Worth Scott: Courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics)

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