College World Series: Vanderbilt falls in Game 1 to Michigan of national title series

OMAHA, Neb. — Vanderbilt is down to its last out in vying for a national title after losing 7-4 to Michigan in Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series Monday.

Starter Drake Fellows (13-2) struggled early. The Commodores fell behind immediately. And they never summoned enough offense for a comeback against Michigan left-hander Tommy Henry (12-5), the second-round draft pick in this year's MLB Draft who held down the best hitting team in college baseball.

"They were the aggressor," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "There's no doubt about that. Our guys know that."

Vanderbilt’s J.J. Bleday hit his 27th home run, which leads college baseball and extended his single-season school record. But it wasn’t enough to spark a rally.

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The Commodores can’t afford to lose again. Game two will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN, when freshman right-hander Kumar Rocker (11-5) will try to keep the season alive.

Vanderbilt (57-12) has won 33 of its last 37 games. It hasn’t lost back-to-back games since early April, but Michigan is riding major momentum in an improbable postseason run.

Michigan (50-20) is playing in its first College World Series since 1984. It won national championships in 1953 and 1962. Coach Erik Bakich, a former Vanderbilt assistant, needs one more win to break that 57-year drought.

"There's no narrative. It's baseball. It's one team playing better than the other," Corbin said. "I don't give a crap where they came from. They got into the tournament."

Fellows fell behind; Vanderbilt never caught up

Fellows struggled from the first pitch but somewhat salvaged his start. He allowed four runs on seven hits and walked four in 5 2/3 innings. And he never got the run support he needed.

In the first, Fellows gave up a walk, two singles and a double among the first five batters. And he started the second by allowing back-to-back walks and another double. Michigan scored two runs in each of the first and second innings, going ahead 4-0 before Vanderbilt put a runner on base.

"It really just came down to throwing strikes," Fellows said. "I couldn't find the strike zone really well the first couple innings and kind of got in some hitters' counts and predictable counts, and they were just jumping on the fastball and jumping on the pitches they thought were coming in predictable counts."

Fellows, visibly frustrated by the poor start, settled down and struck out the side in the third inning. He got out of a jam in the fourth and cruised through the fifth. Fellows couldn’t get out of the sixth, but reliever Zach King relieved him for a strikeout to keep the deficit at 4-2.

Bleday homered, but rally fizzled quickly

In the bottom of the sixth, Bleday smashed the first pitch he saw for a solo home run over the bullpen beyond the right-field wall. It cut Michigan’s lead to 4-3.

But the Commodores never put together the big inning they needed to apply pressure to Michigan. Vanderbilt finished with only seven hits, including five singles.

"You look usually and hope when you look at the other lineup that there's a few batters that you can kind of settle in on, but they do not have any of those," Michigan catcher Joe Donovan said. "I mean, that says even more to Tommy because he's able to go through such a talented lineup and execute the game plan so well."

Michigan answered Bleday's homer in the seventh with Jimmy Kerr’s two-run home run off King to extend the lead back to 6-3. Patrick Raby allowed another home run in the eighth — a solo shot to left by Joe Donovan — to push the gap to 7-3.

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Reach Adam Sparks at asparks@tennessean.com and on Twitter @AdamSparks.