When Vanderbilt baseball was on its flight back from Arizona on Sunday, the Commodores learned they would be playing their home opener on Monday instead to taking a planned day off.
Vanderbilt announced Sunday at 10:30 p.m. that its home opener against Air Force had been moved from Tuesday to Monday due to a forecast of snow on Tuesday night and Wednesday in the Nashville area. A second game against the Falcons, planned for Wednesday, was moved to Tuesday at 1 p.m., giving Vanderbilt five games in five days.
Coach Tim Corbin estimated that the team didn't get to bed until 2:30 a.m. Monday. Fourteen hours later, the Commodores (3-1) played baseball at Hawkins Field, winning 3-1 in weather conditions that dropped into the low 30s by the time the game ended.
Air Force (0-4) was swept by Florida, playing a doubleheader Saturday and had Sunday off.
Vanderbilt's pitching put up a strong performance, striking out 14 and giving up only one unearned run. The offense struggled at times, however, leaving 10 runners on base.
"Tonight was kind of frustrating," Corbin said. " ... (Air Force) did a good job of slowing us down. Our bats looked a little bit slow tonight, but that's all right, we've got a couple big hits. (Colin) Barczi's hit was needed. JD Rogers took a swing, a couple balls there right on the screws that got caught. So one double play, was one of them. And the way the flags going straight in ... and it's heavy, cold air. So, God's stadium, tough place to play tonight."
Barczi and Rogers had the only extra-base hits of the game by either team. Barczi had an RBI triple in the seventh inning and Rogers had a solo home run in the eighth.
Freshman Austin Nye, who hadn't pitched in a game since May 2023 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, started and threw three innings, walking three and striking out five. He was followed up by Connor Fennell, Luke Guth and Alex Kranzler. According to Corbin, Kranzler wasn't supposed to be available Monday but the team viewed it as an emergency situation. After pitching Saturday, Kranzler pitched one inning, allowed one run and got the save.
"Not a ton of nerves, was just more excited to get back out there and help my team win," Nye said. "Like I said it's been two years since I've been in a game, so just kind of calm my nerves and breathing and just enjoy being back out there again."
The circumstances Vanderbilt played under were certainly unusual. The last time Vanderbilt played on a Monday was in 2021. That, too, was the first week of the season when plans to play earlier in the weekend were thwarted due to weather.
"We just suck it up," Corbin said. "They learned they were going to play last night probably about 11:30 so we got back here and put the equipment away. I think they got the bed by 2:30 or so. But part of it, and obviously a challenging day, but same time we won the game, that's really all that matters."
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson .
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt baseball beat Air Force in home opener one day earlier
