Three Observations: Vanderbilt Versus South Alabama and Illinois-Chicago

Three observations from this weeks Vanderbilt series sweeps of South Alabama and Illinois-Chicago.

The Vandy Boys are in the midst of a five-game win streak, scoring two mid-week wins over South Alabama and the weekend sweep of Illinois-Chicago, and all five games were never really in doubt. 

While some of the scores might not suggest Vanderbilt dominated the games, when you look deeper into the final numbers, the Commodores were never really in any danger of losing any of last week's games. 

Here are three observations as to why.  

1) Commodores Starting Pitching: Here's where it was almost a total domination. Jack Leiter (12), Ethan Smith (7), Mason Hickman (12), Kumar Rocker (12), and Jake Eder (11) were strikeout machines in their individual outings last week, mowing down hitters left and right and in the process, eating up innings and controlling their games. 

Combined the five Vanderbilt starters tossed 33.2 of the 45 total innings played last week and finished with an ERA of 0.93 in five games. That left 12.1 innings of work for the bullpen.     

2) The Bullpen: Thomas Shultz, Michael Doolin, Sam Hliboki, Chris McElvain, Erik Kaiser, and Tyler Brown all had successful weeks, striking out 22 opposing hitters in the five wins. Only Luke Murphy struggled during the run, posting a 54.00 ERA after his Saturday appearance against UIC. Murphy did add a strikeout to the relievers total.

 3) Hitting: It's a good thing when three hitters- Ty Duvall, Cooper Davis, Austin Martin- hit .400 or better for the week, and three others-  Parker Noland, Carter Young, Justyn-Henry Malloy- topped the .300 mark in the same week.      

Combined, the Commodores finished the week with a .313 team batting average. No one expects one, much less three players to post averages over .400 for the season, but if this group can keep five or six hitters in the .300 range on the season, then this team is going to be pretty good with the pitching they have that should limit opponents from scoring many runs each game. 

Next Up:  Tuesday vs Evansville, 4:30 pm at Hawkins Field. 

This Week: Wednesday vs St. Louis, Friday, Saturday, Sunday vs Hawaii all home games.