Vanderbilt, Xavier enter weather delay prior to ninth inning of elimination game

Vanderbilt was three outs away from elimination during the Nashville Regional on Sunday. The Commodores — the visitors on the scoreboard — trailed Xavier 2-1 entering the top of the ninth inning, hoping to keep their season alive.

The comeback attempt had to wait.

As the inning was getting ready to start, umpires pulled the players off the field due to lightning in the area. Per NCAA rules, teams must wait 30 minutes after the last lightning strike to resume play. After a lengthy delay, a re-start time of 9 p.m. ET was officially announced.

That’s when play officially resumed. All told, the delay lasted three hours and 59 minutes.

Vanderbilt and Xavier were tied 1-1 in the seventh inning, but Matt DePrey was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. That brought in the go-ahead run to make it a 2-1 Musketeers lead, and that was still the score entering the ninth inning.

Justin Loer, who was on the mound before the rain delay, came back out after the stoppage and picked up right where he left off. He mowed down the Vanderbilt hitters 1-2-3 to seal the 2-1 victory and knock the No. 6-seeded Commodores out of the NCAA Tournament field.

Vanderbilt finishes the season with a 42-20 overall record and a 19-11 mark in SEC play. Afterward, Commodores coach Tim Corbin opened up about the early exit from the tournament, sharing the feelings of the clubhouse after the loss.

“It’s tough to finalize something,” Corbin said, via The Tennesseean’s Aria Gerson. “It’s tough to put it to bed and that’s what takes the energy out of you really is putting the final touches on a team, and it’s only one that can do it, but I guess you always dream about it being you, but it’s a tough deal and we’ll manage, the sun will come up tomorrow, we’ll move forward.”

It was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel as Sam Hliboki and Luke Hoskins battled it out on the mound. Hoskins got the win for Xavier as he allowed three hits and just one run over seven innings of work. Hliboki got the start for Vanderbilt — he threw 5.2 innings, struck out three and allowed just one earned run — but Patrick Reilly took the loss after giving up the seventh-inning hit by pitch that eventually helped the Musketeers in the game.

Xavier advanced to the Nashville Regional final, where the Musketeers took on Oregon Sunday night with a spot in the Super Regionals on the line.