Can Kumar Rocker be Vanderbilt's College World Series hero again?
OMAHA, Neb.  Heres the good news for Vanderbilt after a night that contained none:  Kumar Rocker should be available to pitch Game 3. So yeah, there is still hope. Even after Mississippi State beat it out of Vanderbilt during Tuesdays Game 2, jumping in front and piling on for a 13-2 drubbing that evened the series and sent it to Wednesday nights finale. As a reporter, Im probably more likely to uncover state secrets than have Tim Corbin tell me whom he's planning to pitch in the deciding game of a College World Series. The setup is just too perfect. Vanderbilt blew its opportunity Tuesday. Yet as Game 2 turned into a lost cause, you could see Corbin  with two Game 3 victories on his resume  positioning for Wednesday night. Heres who didnt pitch out of the bullpen in Game 2: Luke Murphy, Chris McElvain or Nick Maldonado (who'd closed out Game 1). They should all be available in Game 3, along with Rocker. And thats huge. Because if the Commodores are to pull this off, you have to believe itll be because of those arms, and not their hitting or fielding. In baseball, it often doesn't matter what is expected. It'll be someone you dont see coming who steps up in a big moment on the biggest stage. But with Vanderbilt so far in this CWS, it has been exactly who everyone saw coming. Rocker and Jack Leiter have indeed been the most valuable players, with those top relievers worthy of distinction, too. Otherwise, Vanderbilt is still looking for someone in its batting order to step up and stand out as a difference-maker that could put them over the top. Each of the Commodores regulars, it seems, has had occasional moments (looking at you in particular, Jayson Gonzalez) at this CWS. But as a team, those moments have been too few. Vanderbilt carried a .211 CWS batting average into Tuesday nights four-hit, three-error performance. You can win that way, but the pitching must be spectacular. Luckily for Vanderbilt, its had been. The staffs 1.91 ERA through the first five CWS games was better than everyone else in the tourney except NC State. The pitching has been so good that it has made up for tepid hitting and shaky defense, putting Vanderbilt on the cusp of another national title anyway. But on Tuesday night, a fear about Vanderbilt's team was again realized. We saw what it looked like without Rocker or Leiter. Against a locked-in Mississippi State lineup that was facing elimination and backed by a roaring crowd, Vanderbilt didnt have enough to compete once the pitching went from strength to liability. Its difficult to blame Vanderbilt starter Christian Little for that. Looking back, youd have to say its more an indictment of the teams lack of starting depth that Corbin felt his best move in Omaha was to gamble twice on Little  who is 17 years old, you may have heard. Little has all the makings of becoming Vanderbilts next great pitcher, but hes not yet. If that wasnt apparent last week against Stanford  when he was chased early and didnt get much defensive help  it was even more so against Mississippi State. Defense let Little down at times again, but that wasnt the problem. Of his 58 pitches, only 27 were strikes. He kept falling behind MSU hitters, and while Little battled bravely and was able to survive a couple of innings, it wasnt sustainable in an NCAA final. The dam broke in the third inning, when Little walked the final three batters he faced. The Bulldogs four-run inning featured only two hits  both singles, one of them an infield hit that stuck in shortstop Carter Youngs glove. Didnt help that Patrick Reilly, who relieved Little, couldnt throw strikes either. Reilly was worse, actually. He walked four of the eight batters he faced. Its a simple lesson: You cant give free passes to an opponent this formidable and expect to beat them. MSU experienced that in the first inning of Game 1, and Vanderbilt did it in Game 2. Neither of those contests was close. And so itll take one more to separate champ and runner-up. Entering Tuesday, Vanderbilt would obviously have rather it didn't come to that. But it has. Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.