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Vanderbilt

Kirk Herbstreit reacts after Vanderbilt wins fourth SEC Tournament under Tim Corbin

Chandler Vesselsby:Chandler Vessels•05/25/25•

ChandlerVessels

kirk herbstreit vanderbilt
Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit gave a shout out to Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin on Sunday after the Commodores won the SEC Tournament. Vanderbilt hung on for a 3-2 victory against Ole Miss to claim its second conference championship in the past three seasons and the fifth in program history.

Four of those five SEC titles have come under Corbin, who has been the coach in Nashville since 2003. Herbstreit took to X, formerly Twitter, after the win to congratulate the coach on his sustained success over the years.

“Corrrrbs!!!!” Herbstreit wrote.

Corbin’s overall record at Vanderbilt is 963-459-1 across the past 23 seasons. In addition to the five SEC Tournament titles, he has led the Commodores to a College World Series victory twice in five trips to Omaha.

Vanderbilt led 2-0 against the Rebels after the first inning Sunday thanks to a two-RBI home run from Brodie Johnston. Both teams scored one run in the fifth inning to make it a 3-1 Commodores lead, where it stayed entering the ninth inning.

That left three outs remaining for Vanderbilt to clinch the title and it got the first one off of a strikeout. However, Isaac Humphrey went yard in the next at bat for the Rebels, who then found themselves just one run away from tying things up.

Ole Miss popped out on the next play but got two more runners on after a pair of walks to make things interesting. But another pop out to center field ended the game as Vanderbilt secured the final out.

The Commodores ended the regular season with a 42-16 record this season and are projected to be the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament according to On3’s Jonathan Wagner. The field is set to be announced at 12 p.m. ET on Memorial Day, and Kirk Herbstreit and others are certain to be following along as Vanderbilt looks to make a run.

Tim Corbin identifies root of Vanderbilt’s improved pitching during SEC Tournament

Vanderbilt‘s pitching staff recorded 38 strikeouts overall in SEC Tournament play after opening in the quarterfinals on Thursday. They opened their postseason with 17 K’s during the 6-1 win over Oklahoma, and turned around to punch out 11 more batters during Saturday’s 10-0 win over Tennessee along with 10 in the SEC Championship win.

“Strikes for the most part,” Corbin explained prior to the title game. “Now, we did give away some free bases the other night, but I just think the ability to get the big strike out — the strikeouts have been a big deal for our pitching staff over the course of the year but certainly in this tournament, as well.

“I think we’ve played pretty good defense behind our pitchers, as well. Rose, the other day, Barczi the other day, as catchers. And then the outfield defense has been a little bit tricky, and always is here because you’ve got to cover a lot of ground, but the wind blowing in today made it difficult in left field for the outfielders, but it’s just that. It’s just getting the ball to the plate, getting the big outs, and playing good defense.”

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.