What’s next for Vanderbilt baseball? Everett funeral, MLB draft – The Tennessean
Vanderbilt’s baseball season ended abruptly Saturday night to wrap up the program’s most turbulent three days in recent memory.
Freshman pitcher Donny Everett, 19, drowned at Lake Normandy in Coffee County on Thursday.
The Commodores spent Friday wrestling with the possibility of playing an NCAA Tournament game that night, grieving with Everett’s family in Clarksville and finally sitting through a rain delay which pushed their game to the next afternoon. And on Saturday, Vanderbilt suffered a pair of losses in a 10-hour stretch that ended their season.
But the start of a new week does not mean the Commodores will simply sit at home. Here are five things that await them in the coming days.
Everett funeral: Vanderbilt baseball players will serve as pallbearers for Everett’s funeral at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Faith Outreach Church in Clarksville. Visitation will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday until the time of the service. The burial will be at Sango Cemetery. Some of Everett’s former Clarksville High teammates will serve as honorary pallbearers.
Offseason grieving: Coach Tim Corbin said playing games provided “some healing for the kids for the immediate moment. Now that it’s gone, then we’ll delve into another level of emotions and mourning.” Corbin admitted that it will be challenging to cope with Everett’s death without the distraction of playing games at Vanderbilt. Plus, players will soon go their separate ways for summer ball.
Team meeting: Players, coaches and staff will meet as a team later this week to talk about the season and look ahead, which is part of Vanderbilt’s usual routine. Corbin seems to dread that goodbye every year, even after winning the 2014 national championship. This meeting should be even more difficult as he tries to sum up a season that went into uncharted territory last week. “Finality is never easy,” Corbin said. “It stinks. It’s the worst. It’s really the worst.”
One-on-one with Corbin: Vanderbilt will return one of college baseball’s most talented teams next season, so offseason work will be critical. After the team meeting, Corbin will sit down with each player one-on-one to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in order to improve over the summer for next season. “You are always growing the program, even when your team may be done,” Corbin said. “Even though the 2016 season is over, we still have an opportunity to improve 2017 just by the way we conclude it, talk about it, process it and learn from it.”
MLB draft: The Major League Baseball amateur draft will be held over three days, beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday on the MLB Network. Pitcher Jordan Sheffield, a Tullahoma product, and center fielder Bryan Reynolds, a former Brentwood High standout, could go as high as the first round. Hard-throwing 6-foot-4 pitcher Ben Bowden should also be selected in the early rounds. And then a secondary group of draft-eligible players, led by pitcher John Kilichowski and catcher Jason Delay, deepens the Commodores’ pool of potential picks.
Reach Adam Sparks at 615-259-8010 and on Twitter @AdamSparks.
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