Vanderbilt is SEC Tournament runnerup again
HOOVER, Ala. - It took more than six hours, and Vanderbilt still finished as the SEC Tournament runner-up yet again.
The No. 2 seed Commodores lost 7-3 to No. 4 seed Florida Sunday night in a championship game delayed for nearly three hours by two storms. It marked Vanderbilt's eighth runner-up finish in 10 trips to the SEC title game.
"There wasn't one particular part of the game we did real well tonight," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "It sucks to come in second."
Vanderbilt (42-19), the defending national champion, was announced Sunday night as an NCAA Regional host. The entire NCAA field will be announced at 11 a.m. Monday on ESPNU, but games at Vanderbilt's regional will begin Friday.
"We can be mad for 24 hours, but you just have to let it go after that," shortstop Dansby Swanson said. "It hurts, but we're off to bigger and better things now."
The championship game — which started at 3:34 p.m. and ended at 10:05 p.m. — nearly lacked a conclusion.
"It looked like (a challenge) for us," Corbin said of the rain delays. "… We weren't very effective with the at-bats after the delay. And that scoreboard says no errors, but there were some defensive breakdowns that cost us some runs."
The game was stopped for 34 minutes in the second inning due to a brief rain shower and then for two hours, 14 minutes in the third inning for a lengthy thunderstorm that drove fans from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium to their cars.
Only the 1990 SEC title game was not completed due to inclement weather, as LSU and Mississippi State were named co-champions that year. But rivals Florida and Vanderbilt finished their final, with the Gators (44-16) grabbing their seventh SEC Tournament title.
When play resumed after the second rain delay, Vanderbilt trailed 5-2 in the bottom of the third inning.
Karl Ellison's RBI single to center in the fourth trimmed Florida's lead to 5-3, but the Gators tacked on two more runs in the fifth off reliever Ben Bowden.
The Commodores got back-to-back two-out hits in the ninth, but the rally fizzled quickly.
Vanderbilt trailed from the opening batter. Florida's Harrison Bader turned on a full-count delivery to hit a lead-off home run off Ryan Johnson, and the Gators added another run in the first inning for a 2-0 lead.
Vanderbilt answered with one run in the bottom half, as Ro Coleman drew a lead-off walk and ultimately scored on Eric Hanhold's wild pitch.
Johnson was tagged again by the first batter after the first rain delay in the second inning. Buddy Reed clocked a double to the left-centerfield wall on the second pitch after the delay to score a run and end Johnson's day.
Reliever Jordan Sheffield gave up another run in the second, and then singles by J.J. Schwarz and Jeremy Vasquez in the third made it 5-1.
Ellison got Vanderbilt's first hit to start the bottom of third with a double into the left-field corner. Two batters later, Rhett Wiseman slapped an RBI single to right-center to cut Florida's lead to 5-2.
Then a dark cloud swept over the stadium and heavy rain hit, pushing both teams to the dugouts for more than two hours.
When they returned to the field, Florida retained the momentum it enjoyed throughout the lengthy game to earn the tournament title.
Reach Adam Sparks at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
Reach Adam Sparks at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
