Vanderbilt 1, Arkansas 0 (Sunday)

A redshirt freshman who missed last spring recovering from Tommy John, righthander Jordan Sheffield has come back as strong as ever, rounding out what looks to be a vicious weekend trio for the Commodores. The emergence of Sheffield isn’t out of the blue as he was a Perfect Game All-American in high school and was considered a high round pick if not for injury.

What he ended up doing Sunday afternoon was pretty impressive though, showing two plus pitches with advanced feel and command, and he offers a third pitch, his breaking ball which is also a solid offering. In the first inning his command was a bit shaky out of the stretch but after that it was virtually a non-factor, partially due to a lack of base runners and just overall improved command once he settled in. He was rushing through his delivery a bit, opening early and missing up to his arm side, but once he got into his rhythm, so did his command and he was lights out.

The fastball is a special pitch even if you’re just looking at the radar gun and nothing else. In the opening frame Sheffield sat in the 92-95 mph range with very difficult to hit life on the pitch. For pretty much the rest of his six innings Sheffield lived in the top half of that range, sitting 94-95 in the middle innings with several 96s before climbing even higher in the fifth with a handful of 97s. The velocity is nice but it was his ability to command both sides of the plate with the pitch that sets him apart from other hard throwers. With a lefthanded heavy lineup, Sheffield showed no problem locating to his glove side on a consistent basis, something that made the changeup that much more effective.