Rocker dominates over 7 scoreless innings

April 17th, 2021
Vanderbilt Baseball

It was back to form for Kumar Rocker on Friday night.

Coming off of his worst outing of the year, MLB Pipeline's top overall Draft prospect rebounded with a gem against Tennessee -- yielding just a pair of hits and a walk over seven shutout frames, while fanning eight in Vanderbilt's 5-0 road victory. The right-hander threw 62 of his 97 pitches for strikes and watched his ERA come back down to 1.64.

Against the Volunteers, the 21-year-old retired the first eight batters he faced -- whiffing four -- before hitting Logan Steenstra with a pitch in the third. After a walk to Liam Spence to put two on with one out, Rocker escaped the jam by freezing Max Ferguson on a 3-2 off-speed pitch in the zone before getting Jake Rucker to fly out to center to end the frame.

Rocker cruised the rest of the way -- retiring the side in order in the fourth and the sixth innings as part of a string of sitting down 14 of the final 16 batters he faced. The only two blemishes over that span were a single in the fifth and a two-out double in the seventh. The right-hander needed 14 pitches or fewer to get through four of his seven frames -- needing only six to navigate the fourth.

Rocker improved to 8-1 with the victory. His only loss of the year came in his last outing when he allowed six runs on seven hits and a pair of walks over five frames in a 14-2 loss to Georgia. Still, that start was not without a silver lining as the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder amassed 12 punchouts.

Every member of the Commodores lineup, but one, notched at least one hit Friday night. Jayson Gonzalez launched a solo homer in the third inning that staked Vanderbilt to a 2-0 lead.