Head Coach Tim Corbin was named National Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball on June 27, two days after winning Vanderbilt’s first-ever men’s national title. Corbin led the Commodores to a 51–21 record—the team’s second straight 50-win season and third in the last four years.
Corbin joins South Carolina’s Ray Tanner and LSU’s Paul Mainieri as the third Southeastern Conference coach to receive the Collegiate Baseball award in the last six years. He has been honored by the press as coach of the year one other time, by College Baseball Insider in 2007.
Several of Corbin’s players also received national recognition for their accomplishments this season. In May, second baseman Dansby Swanson and shortstop Vince Conde became the 20th and 21st Commodores to be named All-Americans under his leadership, while outfielder Bryan Reynolds became the 14th freshman during the Corbin era to earn Freshman All-American status.
Swanson and Reynolds also joined pitcher Carson Fulmer on USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team this summer—the only time other than 2006 when three Commodores have been named to the national team roster. That year former Vanderbilt stars David Price, ’09; Pedro Alvarez, ’09; and Casey Weathers, BA’07, represented the U.S.
The Vanderbilt program also continued its success in the major league draft this year. Pitcher Tyler Beede, who was drafted June 5 by the San Francisco Giants with the 14th overall pick, joined a long list of Commodores to be selected in the first round. Since Corbin’s arrival in 2003, the ’Dores have had at least one first-round pick in the pitching rotation. Overall, five Vanderbilt players were selected in the 2014 draft—all in the first 15 rounds.