Enrique Bradfield Jr. considers how Vanderbilt was able to bounce back late in season

Vanderbilt had some shaky moments in the second half of the regular season this year, including two four-game losing streaks. But star outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. said being able to regroup as a team and put themselves in a position to win the SEC tournament has been fun to be a part of over the past two weeks.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Bradfield said. “The second half of our SEC season didn’t go as we planned, and it happens in this sport. This sport can be cruel at times.”

The Commodores were swept by Tennessee in late April and were then swept two weeks ago by Florida. Both series were on the road. During the month or so stretch of rough during the second half of the season, Vanderbilt went 6-10.

But since losing to Arkansas on May 18, the Commodores have won five of six — including three of four at the SEC Tournament — as the team appears to have re-found its groove.

It couldn’t have come at a better time.

Vanderbilt is facing Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament final Sunday. A victory would be the third conference title under head coach Tim Corbin and the fourth title overall in program history.

Their last tournament title came in 2019.

“It was just kind of refocusing, hanging together, making sure we were still connecting with each other,” Bradfield said. “That’s the biggest part about this group is that we all love to be around each other. Whether we’re doing something baseball related or not, we’re always hanging around each other, so it was just continuing that and knowing that we’re going to be able to weather the storm and play some good baseball going forward.”

Bradfield is hitting .282 on the season with a .422 on-base percentage with six homers, 10 doubles and 37 stolen bases.

He is MLB.com’s No. 10 prospect for the upcoming MLB Draft and considered one of the fastest prospects in the class — if not the fastest. He is an 80 grade runner.

“With game-changing speed and a slender frame, Bradfield understands what he needs to do on offense,” the MLB.com scouting report reads. “He focuses on making contact with a flat left-handed swing, uses the entire field and excels at bunting for base hits. While he’ll never be a slugger, he does have some sneaky pop to his pull side and swatted eight homers in 2022 after going deep just once as a freshman.”