Arizona jumped on Vanderbilt ace Kumar Rocker for three runs in the first inning Saturday in Omaha, but the Commodores struck last in a high-level matchup at the College World Series.
A walk-off single from Vanderbilt third baseman Jayson Gonzalez in the 12th inning sealed a 7-6 victory for the Commodores sending the Wildcats to the elimination bracket despite their hot start to open the CWS.
UA held the lead until the seventh inning when Vanderbilt went up 6-5, but a sacrifice fly from center fielder Donta' Williams in the top of the ninth brought in the tying run sending the game into extra innings.
Arizona reliever Vince Vannelle worked out a bases-loaded jam in the 11th, but he worked out of it with a strikeout and groundout. He would have no such luck in the 12th when Vanderbilt loaded the bases again.
The Commodores kept the pressure on UA throughout the game, and eventually they proved to make enough of the right plays to pull out a victory on the first day of games in Omaha.
"Great college baseball game," UA head coach Jay Johnson said. "Two really good teams with really good players. Credit to Vanderbilt. Put a few more quality at-bats together. Continued to put pressure on us. Felt like we were on the ropes every inning doing everything we could to get out of it.
"Just came up a little bit short. Disappointed for our players, but we'll be ready to go on Monday."
Arizona had Rocker rattled early in the game as a pair of doubles and a pair of singles plus after an early error put the Wildcats in front. The Vanderbilt pitcher has been outstanding this season is expected to be a top-10 pick in the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft, and he had only surrendered 29 runs all season before Saturday's matchup.
He allowed just two runs in the 2019 College World Series en route to helping Vanderbilt win the title.
The Wildcats made him work in the early innings forcing him to throw 36 pitches in the first alone.
After the early issues, the big right-hander settled in and eventually retired 15 consecutive batters to hold the explosive Arizona offense in check changing the momentum of the game.
"When you gotta get started when it's up there at 96 and 97, he can make you chase," Johnson said. "As detailed as we put work into it, as good as our guys have been at that, he kind of found another gear. And so you tip your hat to him and it's why he's going to be a very valued commodity and why he gets the attention that he gets."
The Wildcats struck out a season-high 19 times against Vanderbilt with Rocker having seven of those strikeouts.
Arizona's ace, Chase Silseth, put together a strong performance after receiving the early run support. He surrendered a run on a two-out double in the bottom of the first but kept Vanderbilt scoreless in four of the five ensuing innings.
In all he was on the mound for 6 1/3 innings to finish with six strikeouts and one walk. Vanderbilt ultimately scored four runs on seven hits against the hard-throwing righty.
"I thought the fastball command was really working for me really well, being able to locate that pretty low, lower part of the strike zone to get a lot of ground balls as you saw today," Silseth said. "And I felt really good about my performance. I was just battling out there, competing, to give my team a chance to win and I felt like I did that. So I did my job. And always have trust going to the bullpen with my guys. And I'm backing them full after that."
A major turning point in the game came when Silseth was on the mound. He appeared to get Gonzalez out on a 3-2 pitch, but it was called a ball by the umpire. Both Silseth and Johnson said they believed it was a strike.
Arizona went to the bullpen after that at-bat and ultimately gave up three runs that inning allowing Vanderbilt to take its first lead.
The Wildcats will now face a familiar foe Monday in the elimination bracket as Stanford awaits UA in the losers bracket. The Cardinal lost to North Carolina State in the first game of the day setting up the 11 a.m. MST meeting with the Wildcats.
Arizona is confident heading into the matchup behind Johnson knowing the team reached the championship series back in 2016 after winning multiple elimination games coming out of the losers bracket.
"These guys love playing together and we want to continue to play together," Johnson said. "And we want to keep going. I think we have enough pitching to work our way back through it, but it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is Monday, and so everything will be about Monday."
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