Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Tim Corbin and his team celebrate with the championship trophy as Ole Miss Rebels take on Vanderbilt Commodores during the SEC baseball tournament championship game at Hoover Met in Birmingham, Ala., on Sunday, May 25, 2025. Vanderbilt Commodores defeated Ole Miss Rebels 3-2. Jake Crandall/ Montgomery Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Instant Analysis: Vanderbilt Baseball 3, Ole Miss 2 In The SEC Baseball Championship

Originally posted on Vanderbilt Commodores on SI
By Graham Baakko | Last updated May 25, 2025 5:46 PM ET

HOOVER, Ala.- Vanderbilt snuck past Ole Miss in a 3-2 victory in Sunday’s SEC Championship.

Vanderbilt’s pitching was the story of the game. Freshman starting pitcher Austin Nye gave his team a great start. In his second start against a SEC team, Nye threw for 4.2 innings and only gave up two hits and one run to the Rebels.

But that was not all. Relief pitchers Luke Guth, Levi Huesman and Sawyer Hawks kept the Commodores in the lead the whole game, including Hawks, who closed the game out in the final two innings and secured a conference championship. Between the three relievers, they pitched 4.1 innings and allowed only one hit and one run.

On the offensive end, third baseman Brodie Johnston gave Vanderbilt the early lift it needed with a two-run home run in the first inning and Jacob Humphrey came up with the eventual game-winning run with a solo home run to right field that put the ‘Dores up 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth.

“So these guys have been a mature team. They will handle this in the way they need to handle it,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said. “They want to have fun in doing all of this, but we've got a lot of baseball ahead of us, and we can't wait to play. But this tournament has been outstanding. Obviously we won so it's easy for me to say that right now, but I just feel like the games were -- it's great to be here,”

“There's not one day -- they know how I feel about this tournament. I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for it, to think that we're in this conference and playing baseball at this level with people that care, people that care about watching you. There's not a conference tournament in the country that comes close to this. So we're fortunate. We're fortunate people.”

Watch the above video as Vanderbilt On SI analysts Joe Gaither and Graham Baakko break down Vanderbilt baseball's SEC Championship victory over the Ole Miss Rebel. The pair discusses the game, standout players and potential NCAA Tournament seeding.