SEC Baseball Championship 2023: Vanderbilt Defeats Texas A&M for 4th Title

For the fourth time in program history, the Vanderbilt Commodores are Southeastern Conference champions.

Vanderbilt defeated Texas A&M 10-4 Sunday afternoon to win the title, their first since 2019. This sets up the Commodores to host a regional in the NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies got a run across the board first, but Commodore senior Troy LaNeve unleashed on a hung breaking ball in the second inning to bring three runs across the board.

This was LaNeve's third home run of the season, all three being three-run bombs. The Commodores would add another run to their lead in the third, but the Aggies chipped away and eventually tied the score in the sixth inning.

That is where Tim Corbin's Commodores got tricky, and a squeeze play re-established the lead in the bottom of the inning.

The score would hold until the bottom of the eighth, but the fourth-seeded Commodores exploded for five runs to take a commanding lead.

A smooth ninth inning brought the game to a close.

The Commodores had 15 hits and zero errors in the victory. Patrick Reilly earned the victory for Vanderbilt after tossing four innings in relief, allowing five hits, three earned runs and one walk while striking out four Aggies hitters. Chris Cortez took the loss for Texas A&M after allowing two hits, one earned run and one walk while striking out one in a single inning on the bump.

While the Aggies fall short of a conference championship, they will get a shot at redemption in the NCAA tournament. They were projected to get a two seed in a regional going into Sunday according to D1baseball.com.

The Commodores are projected to be the sixth national seed going into the NCAA tournament after the field is announced on Monday. They are looking to advance to the College World Series for the third time in the last four seasons.