OMAHA,
Neb. – When Marty McFly went back to 1955 in Doc’s Brown’s
DeLorean had he been able to spend his time in Omaha instead of Hill
Valley he could have learned the answer to what has become one of the
college baseball’s longest running trivia questions – he would
know that Wake Forest was the last Atlantic Coast Conference team to
win the College World Series.
It
seems incredible that no ACC team has left Omaha with the
championship trophy in six decades. Clemson has been to the CWS a
dozen times without being the final team standing. Florida State has
left Nebraska 10 times without the title – 21 times if you count
their appearances in other conferences. Even North Carolina, who has
been to the CWS 10 times, including the 2009 club which had future
MLB players Dustin Ackley, Kyle Seager, Matt Harvey, Adam Warren and
Alex White on the roster, failed to be the team the dog-piled after
the last out.
If
Virginia is going to end the ACC drought they’re going to have
their work cut out for them because if Monday night's game was any
indication, stopping Vanderbilt from claiming a second straight title
will be an arduous task. Vanderbilt continued their perfect play in
Omaha with a win built on quality pitching, timely hitting and
fundamental baseball.
The
Cavs looked to be up to the challenge early. The starting duo of
Virginia’s Connor Jones and Vandy’s Carson Fulmer began the game
with a classic pitchers’ duel. Each continually put down batters
and strung a line of zeroes across the scoreboard. Hits were hard to
come by and scoring opportunities were even more scarce.
Vanderbilt
was finally able to get in on the scoreboard following what would be
the the big hit of the night from Will Toffey.
In
the bottom of the sixth the freshman stepped up to the plate of the
scoreless game with two outs and two men on. Until that point Jones
had nearly matched Fulmer. But Jones’ 99th pitch of the night
flattened out and Toffey was able to go the opposite way and dumped
it over the left fielder’s head for a stand-up double. The knock
scored Bryan Reynolds and Zander Wiel who had reached on a walk and
single respectively and were able to get good jumps off their bases.
“It
was just a pitch and a place,” Toffey said later, when asked about
his hit. “It just happened that way. It was just an elevated
fastball that was out over the plate and up, and I did my best to
shoot it that way, and that's all.”
The
hit by Toffey was almost as incredible as the path that brought him
to Vanderbilt.
Toffey
was an accomplished prep baseball player and was a core member of a
team that went 76-1 during his three years playing at Salisbury
School in Barnstable, Massachusetts. He was named the New England
Prep Baseball Player of the Year in both 2013 and 2014 and had caught
the eye of a number of MLB teams, including the New York Yankees who
selected him in the 23rd round of the 2014 amateur draft.
However
the call of playing in the MLB wasn’t the only competition
Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin had to face in order to get him on
campus. In addition to being a top baseball player, Toffey was also a
skilled hockey player. His team won the New England Prep School
championships in 2013 and 2014 and he was the captain and the leading
scorer as a defenseman.
Corbin,
a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire native, attended one of Toffey’s hockey
tournament games during Christmas break when Toffey’s team played
Corbin’s own alma mater Kimble Union. Corbin wanted to see Toffey
compete on ice and estimated that there were at least 30 NHL
executives also in attendance at the rink watching Toffey and his top
ranked teammates. Recruiting Toffey to put down the stick in exchange
for a bat was not going to be easy.
Toffey’s
older brother John had also excelled both on the ice and on the
diamond and played both in college. Will went to him to for advise on
what direction he should pursue. John ultimately recommended that
Will pick one sport and give it his all; from his own experience
playing two sports was simply too time demanding. Will loved both,
but ultimately chose baseball - perhaps partly because his and John’s
father has been a pitcher in the Pittsburg Pirates organization.
Toffey
brought his hockey toughness, confidence and swagger to Nashville and
fit in with the Vanderbilt team. He made the starting lineup as a
freshman and has been proving he made the right decision ever since.
He was named to the Freshman All-SEC Team after leading the ‘Dores
with a .348 average during SEC play and had a 28-game hitting streak.
He was also named to the SEC All Tournament Team.
Vanderbilt’s
Dansby Swanson heaped praise on his teammate Toffey after the game.
“Toff's
been great for us all year long,” Swanson touted. “At this point
in in the season you can't really consider him a freshman anymore
because of all the experience he's had in the fall, going to the
Dominican, and then this whole season. He's got close to 100 games
under his belt now, and we trust him in all types of situations
whether it's defensively or offensively. When we saw him come up
there we knew he would come through.”
Coach
Corbin echoed Swanson’s sentiment.
“Dansby
mentioned the Dominican and we did have him hitting up in the order
all the way back to the fall, so we knew he was a mature hitter,”
the top ‘Dore skipper stated. “What you saw there is his ability
to go back and forth on both foul lines, for a young kid is a special
skill. He's got good hands, he's got good eyesight. He contains
himself well at the plate and a very competitive kid.”
Once
the lead was established it was up to the Vanderbilt pitching staff
to make sure the ‘Dores walked away with the win.
Fulmer
pitched as masterfully as anticipated in his last collegiate start.
The Vanderbilt ace capped the season in which he won SEC Pitcher of
the Year, first team All-SEC and Defensive All-SEC with one of his
most dominating outings of the year and looked every bit worthy of
being the eighth overall selection in the MLB draft.
The
only hit Fulmer allowed through the first seven innings was an
infield single. At one point he had retired ten straight and appeared
to on his way to a complete game before he ran into some trouble late
in the bottom of the eighth. He was one a strike away from finishing
the inning before he gave up a double and a walk. His roommate, Ben
Bowden was able to come in and induce a fly ball to get the third
out.
It
was a bittersweet finish for Fulmer, who didn’t to leave the game,
but knew it was time to hand the ball over.
“When
I see Coach walking out, I know that's it,” Fulmer stated after the
game. “And you have to put all frustration aside. And what made it
big for me was not only did I have Coach there but I had the whole
infield. And I consider those guys my best friends, and along with
the other guys on my team. And for me being able to spend that moment
with them and just look back on the brotherhood that we created, and
I'm on top of it with a win at the end of the game.
“So
it's definitely a moment I'll remember for the rest of my life, and I
couldn't have asked for it to happen any better.”
Fulmer
finished the year as just the fourth pitcher in SEC history, and
first since Tennessee’s Luke Hochevar in 2005,
to win the pitching triple crown as he will finish tops in the league
in wins (14), ERA (1.83) and strikeouts
(167).
In
the seventh inning Ro Coleman, Dansby Swanson and Bryan Reynolds each
added RBI hits to increase the lead to 5-0. The extra runs gave the
Vanderbilt pitching staff some extra breathing room that allowed them
to settle in and close the game.
Virginia
was one the verge of a rally in the ninth inning, but couldn’t
plate the necessary runs to even up the score. A pinch hit single by
Jack Gerstenmaier scored Kenny Towns and a
Joe McCarthy walk put two potential runs on base, but closer Kyle
Wright was able to finish the inning without allowing any more
damage.
Afterwards,
Virginia Head Coach Brian O’Connor spoke highly of both clubs and
made a point that the series isn’t over yet.
“That
was certainly a great ballgame there,” O’Connor stated. “For
the first six innings certainly a pitchers' duel – Connor and
Carson really were buckling down and making a lot of big pitches. I
was really proud there of Connor, and I thought he really battled and
gave it his best out there and gave us a chance. But from their
standpoint, Carson Fulmer certainly was tremendous. He pitched the
bottom of the zone, did a nice job of changing speeds when we did get
a chance to get a few guys on, just didn't allow us to get that big
hit and certainly he's worthy of all the accolades that he's received
and he's a tremendous competitor.
“We've
been in this situation before this year. Certainly we were in this
situation going into Saturday against Florida, that if you win, you
get to continue your season on, if you don't, it's over. So this team
has handled that kind of adversity all year long, and I would imagine
tomorrow night would be no different.”