Vanderbilt senior catcher Alan Espinalhit hit two homes runs and drove in five runs in last week’s 13-4 win against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament.  His 12 total home runs and 47 RBI are second-best on the team in both categories.

-- Photo By Michael Wade | Icon Sportswire

College baseball’s longest active Division I streak for reaching the postseason is alive and well. For the 18th consecutive year, the Vanderbilt Commodores are on the golden “Road to Omaha,” having been named to the 64-team field that will play for a berth in the June 14-24 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.

The 18-season postseason streak, which began in 2006 and is highlighted by national championships in 2014 and 2019, is the longest active streak in Division I.

Vanderbilt (38-21) begins the 2024 postseason campaign Friday at the Clemson Regional, playing Coastal Carolina (34-23) at 11 a.m. on ESPN2. Clemson will open against High Point in the double-elimination regional.

A late-season, four-game win streak that carried the team to the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, where the Commodores lost 6-4 to top-ranked Tennessee, clinched inclusion in the brackets announced Monday.

Tennessee would go on to win the conference tournament, and was named the overall No. 1 seed for the College World Series.

The VandyBoys beat No. 2 Kentucky in the regular season finale, then defeated Florida, Tennessee and No. 15 Mississippi State to reach the semifinals.

The question of whether the Commodores belonged in the NCAA field was never in doubt, say the Commodores, though there were concerns.

“Yeah, I’m happy for them. It was certainly one of those situations that came down to the last couple of weeks,” Coach Tim Corbin says. “We had a tough schedule at the end, played through it and I like how it finished for the guys in the tournament.

“I’m certainly happy for the program’s consistency. That’s a long period of time, obviously, but more than anything (I’m) just happy for the guys and the opportunity to play.”

Seniors Alan Espinal and Calvin Hewett say the players never lacked confidence in getting to the postseason.

“We didn’t know if we were going to get our name called. So just the fact that we saw our name on the board was happy for us and we’re ready to go,” says outfielder Hewett, who was named to the SEC all-tournament team after hitting .429 (6-for-13) with a home run, triple, double, four stolen bases, three RBI and three runs scored.

“There’s a lot of pride (in the program). I know a lot of the guys here were really down after that loss against Kentucky. We just came back on that Sunday … and we carried that into the (SEC) tournament and that’s kind of what flipped for us. We’ve got a lot of guys that want to win and they don’t want to go home.”

Catcher Espinal says the VandyBoys understood the dire situation going into that final week of the regular season.

“Obviously, there’s a whole lot of pride that goes into it. These guys work so hard and we worked hard all year,” Espinal says. So it’s not weird for us just bounce back because that’s the nature of our program. It just keeps going and going.”

And now that the VandyBoys are on the Road to Omaha for the 18th consecutive season, the goal is a destination they’ve reached twice in the last decade.

“I like the way we’re playing. Good momentum, good harmony on the team,” Corbin says. “Even when we were going through rough patches … the team, they weren’t shook. I mean, their foundation wasn’t shook … and that’s what I like about them. Right now, they’re feeling good about what they’ve done and they should. … There should be a reward for doing things well and hopefully this is one of them.”

Adds Espinal: “That’s what we’re here for, to keep playing baseball as long as you can.”