Vanderbilt baseball misses NCAA Tournament for first time since 2005

Vanderbilt baseball has missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, snapping a 19-year streak that was the longest active in Division I baseball and the longest in the history of the SEC.

The Commodores finished 2026 at 33-25 overall, with an SEC record of 14-16. They become the first team to go 14-16 in the SEC and miss the NCAA Tournament since Ole Miss and Missouri in 2017.

The culprit was an RPI that finished outside the top 70 after Vanderbilt went just 11-7 before SEC play started, including losses to North Dakota State and Central Arkansas.

The Commodores only had two wins all season against SEC teams that finished above .500 in conference play. Down the stretch of the season, Vanderbilt blew multi-run leads to Alabama, Oklahoma and Missouri and lost an extra-innings contest to Texas.

The Commodores finished 12th in the SEC in ERA at 5.23 and had only one reliable starter, Connor Fennell, for much of the season after injuries to Austin Nye, Matthew Shorey, England Bryan, Miller Green and Aiden Stillman.

That all came despite setting the program's single-season home run record with 108. Six players finished with at least 10 home runs.

In 2026, two other teams with decade-long NCAA Tournament streaks saw those streaks snapped: LSU, which last missed in 2011, and Dallas Baptist, which last missed in 2013.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt baseball not in NCAA Tournament for first time since 2005