Vanderbilt baseball can throw strikes and other things we learned in sweep of Texas A&M

Vanderbilt baseball is off to its best home start to the season since 2007 after sweeping Texas A&M.

The Commodores (20-5, 4-2 SEC) improved to 15-0 at Hawkins Field, winning three pitchers' duels, 5-3 on Thursday, 3-1 on Friday and 8-5 on Saturday. Vanderbilt pitchers tallied 49 strikeouts across the three games. The Commodores' 17 strikeouts on Saturday were their most in an SEC game since 2021.

Offensively, Vanderbilt did just enough, with Jacob Humphrey, Riley Nelson, Brodie Johnston and Braden Holcomb all coming up big at times.

Next up, the Commodores will host Eastern Kentucky (3-19) on Tuesday before welcoming Arkansas (21-2, 3-1) for a three games beginning March 28.

Here's what we learned:

Vanderbilt resets rotation

After Ethan McElvain put up a 9.95 ERA in five weekend starts with 16 walks in 12⅔ innings, Vanderbilt opted to move him to the bullpen. Instead, Connor Fennell got the start Thursday.

Fennell, a transfer from Dayton who was a weekend starter there, went 3⅔ innings and gave up two runs on a home run by Jace LaViolette. He walked one and struck out eight. Vanderbilt finished off that game with top relievers Alex Kranzler (1⅓ innings, one unearned run, two walks, two strikeouts) and Sawyer Hawks (four scoreless innings, six strikeouts).

Regular starters JD Thompson and Cody Bowker went Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Thompson gave up just one solo home run to Bear Harrison in 6⅓ innings, walking none and striking out 10. Tommy O'Rourke and Miller Green finished off that game by combining to allow no runs in the final 2⅔ innings with one walk and six strikeouts.

Pitching on short rest Saturday, Bowker allowed three runs in 4⅔ innings, but he walked none and struck out eight. McElvain made his first appearance since being moved to the bullpen in that game, allowing two unearned runs in 1⅔ innings. He was pulled after allowing the tying run on base in the ninth inning, and O'Rourke got the final out.

The top of the order comes through

A common narrative for Vanderbilt this season is that it's gotten a lot of production from the players at the top of the order but has struggled to find the right mix in the bottom half. That largely continued in this series.

On Thursday, Jacob Humphrey, who moved to the leadoff spot a week ago, was the hero with two hits, including a three-run homer. On Friday, Riley Nelson recorded two doubles and Colin Barczi had another. On Saturday, Nelson and Brodie Johnston both hit home runs and Johnston added on two more hits and three total RBIs.

The main production from the bottom of the order in the series came from Braden Holcomb. Holcomb was hitting below .200 as recently as a week ago but has recorded seven hits in his last 18 at-bats. He recorded three hits Thursday and drove in two of Vanderbilt's three runs Friday with an RBI groundout and a single.

RJ Austin shows off his defense

Though RJ Austin has been in a batting slump, he showed up big defensively. On Friday, he threw LaViolette out at third base after an error. Then, to end Friday's game, Austin threw out Blake Binderup trying to stretch a single into a double to end the game. Had Binderup not been thrown out, Texas A&M would've had the go-ahead run at the plate. Instead, the Commodores clinched the series victory.

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 can throw strikes and other things we learned in sweep

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