Coming off of an 8-2 victory last night, which moved our record to 49-16, and put us 1 victory away from winning our third national championship, Tim Corbin’s baseball team and Commodore Nation couldn’t be more electric right now.

Jack Leiter was his usual all world self last night at TD Ameritrade Stadium before 24,052 fans. Jack went 6, gave up 3 hits, 2 runs with 3 walks and 8 K’s. He now has 179 strikeouts on the season. Kumar has 173, and who knows, Kumar could get the call tonight, so he may overtake Jack. If Christian Little starts tonight, and he very well may, and we happen to lose, hopefully not, Kumar would get the start tomorrow night.

But the mock MLB drafts have 3 high school players going ahead of Jack and Kumar. The mock drafts by different sites have Jack going 4th to the Red Sox and Kumar 7th to the KC Royals. I don’t know how there are 3 better, more valuable players than Jack and Kumar. I don’t understand how these 2 proven college pitchers are not 1-2 in the draft. I’m not sure what these prognosticators are smoking, but it ain’t legal. You see our 2 hosses and realize these are the top 2 amateur players in the country. You draft on “potential” in high school and that doesn’t work out a lot. So I’d go with proven commodites. And there are no more proven commodities than Jack and Kumar.

But what they’re both concerned about and what our team is concerned about is winning it all tonight in Omaha. There might be more State fans there, but who cares, we’ve got the horses in the dugout and a good group of solid fans supporting our team. A lot of awesome parents like the Rockers and the Leiters and I think I saw Enrique’s and Javy’s parents there too. I would bet all of the guys’ families are there. It’s just such a magical, special thing that our guys are doing. So very proud of them.

But, we’ve got one more hurdle to clear. I like Christian on the hill tonight. Trust our 17 year old stud in the clutch. You never know with Corbs though, he may throw the man out there tonight to close it out. Kumar is a shut down force, so we’ll see what Corbs decides. Interesting decision. I have no preference. Just want to have the guy out there who gives us the best opportunity to win the national championship. Of course, I trust Kumar and I also trust Christian. He’s a battler and is super talented, so wouldn’t mind seeing Christian out there at all.

State looks to be throwing left handed junior Houston Harper. He’s 7-2 with a 3.10 ERA, 19 walks and 63 K’s in 58 innings. He’s given up 7 homers, so he keeps it in the park for the most part, but we’ve got guys who can hit it out 1-9, as one of our great seniors, Jayson Gonzalez, showed last night with his 3 run blast. I thought Jayson, along with Jack and the great Nick Maldonado, were our 3 star players last night. Jayson played an awesome third base, and that was such a clutch long one to deep left central. Proud of the man. Can’t forget our seniors, Jayson, Cooper Davis and Hugh Fisher. They’ve put their hearts and souls into this program, and it would be such a gift for them to go out as national champions.

Harper pitched against Texas in last Friday Night’s CWS game and went 4.2, giving up 4 hits, 3 earned runs with 2 walks and 4 K’s. He pitched against us on Sunday, April 25th, a game at the Hawk in a series we took 2 out of 3 games, and he went 1.1 innings, giving up 2 hits, 2 runs with a walk and 3 strikeouts. He’s got a good ERA and some good numbers, so we’ll need to lock in.

Maldonado was awesome last night going 3, giving up 2 hits, 0 runs, with 0 walks and 4 K’s. He was shutdown, lights out. That’s the Nick Maldonado we’re used to. He’s found that super ability he had for most of the regular season in the postseason. Nick is draft eligible and he’s certainly impressing scouts. He’s 21, like Jack, and even though he’s a sophomore, the rule is, if you choose to go to college baseball out of high school, you need to either play 3 years in college or if you turn age of 21 you are qualified to go out for the MLB draft. Nick is certainly making a strong case for himself right now. He’s a very strong pitcher.

CJ Rodriguez had a beautiful 2 out, 2 run single in the bottom of the 1st. CJ is also draft eligible as a 21 year old sophomore and he certainly has turned some heads with his terrific defense, leadership behind the plate catching our pitchers, his ability to throw out potential base stealers, and his effective and clutch hitting. CJ has gotten a lot of big hits for us. Isaiah Thomas had a run scoring double and made the catch of the CWS last night. What a diving head first catch he made in right field foul territory. That was a spectacular play. Isaiah, a junior, also impressed the scouts last night.

Our whole team played a phenomenal game and we just need one more. State is of course, a formidable foe. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. But I like the attitude and the focus of our Vanderbilt baseball team. Great bunch of guys who aim to close it out tonight and capture our third national championship in program history joining the 2014 and 2019 elite squads.

Game time is 6 PM CT on ESPN. Weather looks good. No problem with rain.

Anchor Down.