What Tim Corbin said about Vanderbilt baseball ground-rule double fog controversy

Coach Tim Corbin said Vanderbilt baseball probably should not have been playing when a potential go-ahead home run ball was lost in fog against Missouri May 8.

The Commodores were trailing, 7-6, in the top of the ninth inning with two on and two outs. Braden Holcomb hit a ball to deep right field, but nobody was able to locate the ball due to foggy conditions.

An umpire originally called it a home run, but it was changed to a ground-rule double after a conference with the umpires. The game was then suspended, and Vanderbilt ultimately lost the game, 8-7, after it resumed the next day.

"We're all wishing that ball went over the fence, or better yet, maybe it was found on the field, because if it was found on the field, then it's an inside-the-park home run," Corbin said after a 9-1 win over South Carolina on May 14. "But it was none of those.

"It was just a situation where we probably shouldn't have been playing."

The decision of whether to delay a game that has already started lies with the umpires. The umpire in that game, Corbin said, told him and Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson that it was their call whether to continue the game.

According to Corbin, the umpire said that he did not believe the teams should still be playing. But Jackson told the umpire, "They played in it defensively, we should play in it defensively too."

Corbin said that the first-base umpire ruled the ball a home run because he felt that he needed to make a call so that the baserunners knew what to do. But that the call was changed after the umpires conferenced because they believed the ball did not have the trajectory of a home run.

Trackman data suggested otherwise, saying that the ball has hit 108 mph and traveled 379 feet, which would have been a home run to right field at Taylor Stadium. But Corbin said that the umpires could not use Trackman to make the call.

"We could have won the game differently," Corbin said. "We had opportunities, we didn't do it. So we take full responsibility for our wins and losses."

Just prior to the controversy, Vanderbilt had given up a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Luke Guth was left in the game despite allowing six straight batters to reach base at one point. He was pulled after Missouri tied the game, and Matthew Shorey got the final two outs of the inning but allowed the go-ahead run to score.

Corbin said closer Tyler Baird, who eventually gave up the walk-off run, did not enter the game earlier because he was supposed to start the second game of that series. That plan was scrapped after the game was suspended, and he took the mound for the ninth and 10th innings of that game.

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: Tim Corbin on Vanderbilt baseball ground-rule double controversy