Series Preview: Another ripe opportunity presents itself vs. Vanderbilt

Who: Vanderbilt Commodores (18-12, 5-4 in SEC)
Where: Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park - Bryan-College Station, TX
When:

Thursday: 6 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)
Friday: 6 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)
Saturday: 2 p.m. CT (SEC Network+)

Pitching matchups

Thursday: LHP Shane Sdao (3-1, 5.26 ERA) vs. RHP Connor Fennell (2-1, 4.89 ERA)
Friday: RHP Weston Moss (3-2, 6.75 ERA) vs. RHP Wyatt Nadeau (1-1, 4.18 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Aiden Sims (5-0, 3.96 ERA) vs. TBA

Scouting Vanderbilt

These aren’t the Vandy Boys you’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Whereas vintage Tim Corbin teams are built around elite starting pitching and pressure-packed offenses that aren’t afraid to use their speed, this Commodore club slugs.

© Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel

Tim Corbin is in his 24th season as Vanderbilt’s head coach. The Commodores won the 2025 SEC Tournament but failed to escape the Nashville Regional.

Through 30 games, Vanderbilt is tied for second with 63 home runs. Their .562 slugging percentage is 10th nationally and fourth in the SEC (Texas A&M’s .584 is sixth and second in those categories, respectively). However, the Dores’ scoring average and on-base percentage rank in the 30s and 40s, as there is some serious swing-and-miss in their lineup. Vandy’s 267 strikeouts are the second most in the SEC, and only Ole Miss (290) has more.

Second baseman Brodie Johnston’s .367 average leads a group of four players at or above .300. The talented sophomore also has a team-best .658 slugging percentage on 11 doubles and eight home runs. The biggest power threat is third baseman Braden Holcomb, who has driven in 34 on 11 homers, but the 6-foot-5 junior has punched out 37 times in 121 at-bats, which equates to a 30.6 percent K rate. Along with Johnston and Holcomb, shortstop Ryker Waite and outfielder Mike Mancini are slugging .606 and .640, respectively. White shares the team lead in stolen bases with all-name-team centerfielder Rustan Rigdon at seven.

Can A&M’s pitching staff find enough swing-and-miss this weekend vs. what appears to be a swing-happy Commodore offense? If not, it’s fair to expect another weekend of high run outputs at Blue Bell Park.

When it comes to pitching, Corbin’s 2026 group does not have a single name that might resemble David Price, Sonny Gray, Carson Fulmer, Walker Buehler, Kumar Rocker or Jack Leiter. The best these Dores have is funky right-hander Connor Fennell. Aggie fans might remember his first Vanderbilt start last March, when he struck out eight across 3.2 innings. Fennell’s strikeout numbers are still high — 12.1 K/9 on 52 strikeouts on 38.2 innings — but opponents are hitting .230 against him as his ERA is an inflated 4.89 compared to his 2.53 mark in 2025. He’s the only Commodore who has thrown enough innings to qualify for any statistical category, and he was fantastic last Friday vs. Tennessee.

Behind Fennell in Thursday’s opener, right-hander Wyatt Nadeau will take the ball on Friday. He has struck out 36 in 28.0 innings, but he has also walked 14 to go along with a 4.18 ERA. Saturday’s series finale appears to be a Johnny Fullstaff-type setup for Corbin & Co., as five other arms have started three or more games for Vanderbilt this season. Indeed, it is a staff that is far from dominant as they’ve allowed an average of 13.5 runs in their nine conference games.

While it’s fair to expect the Aggies to score runs in bunches, the Commodores have found ways to win ballgames. Look no further than last weekend’s sweep of Tennessee in Nashville that featured three walk-offs in three consecutive days.

Texas A&M storylines to watch

The cliche rings true again: It begins and ends with starting pitching. A&M’s rotation has to give more, and that begins on Thursday night when Shane Sdao toes the rubber. Add additional importance on the starting pitching by recognizing the lack of depth down in the Aggie bullpen. Add additional importance on Sdao individually by recognizing he sets the tone for the entire weekend. The numbers aren’t pretty. Among the Aggie trio, Sdao’s conference ERA (10.29) and conference WHIP (2.14) are the worst of three. Sims leads the way with rather large marks of 7.90 and 1.76, respectively, while Moss checks in at 9.00 and 1.77.

Simply put: A&M’s starting pitching has not been good enough, and somehow, the Aggies are above .500 in conference.

Now, imagine what a quality Sdao (or Moss) start would do for this club.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Shane Sdao’s longest SEC start was a 5.2-inning outing vs. Georgia on March 20.

The left-hander has shown glimpses in each of his outings of being the ace A&M needs. He provided length vs. Georgia. He fanned 11 against the Bulldogs. He was solid early in his start last week, and in his last three non-conference games, he worked deep into each of the A&M wins over Penn, Virginia Tech and Oakland. If he can regain that form and smooth over the blips against UGA and Mizzou, Sdao will allow a red-hot offense to (hopefully) give A&M a chance to play with a lead in the late innings, which would allow Michael Earley to utilize his thin bullpen correctly. The same can be said for Moss on Friday night.

Speaking of the bullpen, relief (pun intended) appears to be on the way as Luke Billings and Hunter Bond are returning from injury. While it’s unlikely that either will be thrown into the fire in an SEC series, welcoming reinforcements should help with the workload expected of the usual suspects. Clayton Freshcorn has been elite with a sub-1.00 WHIP en route to six saves, most of them of the multi-inning variety. Similarly, Gavin Lyons has been solid in a variety of relief roles, and an emerging Grant Cunningham has turned in four consecutive appearances of one (or fewer) earned runs allowed. More stability is needed from Juan Vargas and Ethan Darden, but the midweek performances of Hunter Vincent and Cooper Powell vs. Sam Houston do provide something to dream on. At this point, with what’s ahead, the Aggie bullpen needs all the help it can get.

Of course, pitching with a lead is a huge help, and the A&M offense has found its form. In fact, it’s one of the nation’s elite units.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

First baseman Gavin Grahovac has homered five times in his last three games.

Led by SEC Player of the Week Gavin Grahovac, fellow future first-rounder Caden Sorrell and Chris Hacopian, professional hitter Jake Duer, always-on-base Bear Harrison and a trio of true freshmen, the Aggie offense is third nationally in on-base percentage (.460), fifth in scoring (10.04), sixth in slugging (.584), ninth in home runs (55) and home runs per game (1.96), 13th in doubles (67) and 17th in batting average (.320). Up and down the lineup, these Aggies slug, pass the baton and drive in runs.

While the entire story is still being written, they’re currently authoring one of the better offensive seasons in school history. If — and it’s a big “if” — they can maintain this level of production (or something similar) over the next seven weeks, they’ll be able to cover up some of the aforementioned pitching deficiencies a la the 2022 club that reached the Men’s College World Series and won a pair of games in Omaha that June. While it’s hard to expect the 2026 team to equal the second-best run in A&M history, we’ve seen firsthand and recently that it is possible to mash your way into the postseason and go deep once you get there. The back half of the season will tell us how “sustainable” or “unsustainable” this style of play truly is, but at the midway point, the bats have exceeded expectations and might help the entire club achieve what they need to throughout the remainder of this spring and into the summer.

Danny Grant, TexAgs

Michael Earley’s Aggies have won six straight. They are averaging 10.0 runs per game in SEC play.

What’s at stake this weekend

Each weekend is a rollercoaster in the up-and-down SEC.

Currently, the Maroon & White are riding one of the highs, and they have the chance to keep ascending now that they’re back at home for back-to-back conference series inside Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

Next weekend and what it means for everything off of the actual diamond is starting to creep in the minds of the 12th Man, but inside the clubhouse and the coach’s locker room, this is the most important weekend of the season.

A second consecutive series victory would, at the very least, put A&M two games over .500 in SEC play and give the Aggies a little more cushion with three weekends vs. ranked opponents left to go along with trips to Baton Rouge and Gainesville.

With so much of the schedule left to play, it’s hard to say any series is a “must-win” because so much can change from week to week. Postseason pictures are slowly coming into focus, but they can still fluctuate with the weather (which is also something to keep an eye on this weekend). Still, the Aggies can’t be looking ahead, as this is another opportunity ripe for the taking.

So be selfish and take it. And then be really selfish next week.