Giobbi injury does nothing to deter VU baseball in victory over Vermont

Tim Corbin did not recognize the signs that Andrew Giobbi was injured on Friday night.

Then on Saturday afternoon the Vanderbilt baseball coach saw no indication that his team was significantly affected by the fact that his junior catcher was unable to play.

With redshirt-freshman Aaron Westlake behind the plate for the first time in his life, the Commodores (4-3) defeated Vermont 14-3 in rainy, cold conditions at Hawkins Field.

“I think the best compliment you can ever give a catcher is if you don’t notice him,” Corbin, the VU coach, said. “I thought you could go through that game (Saturday) and really not notice him. He did a nice job of catching the ball, he didn’t have to retrieve balls to the backstop.

“He didn’t look messy. I thought he did a clean job.”

Giobbi sustained a broken left hand when he was hit by a pitch in the first inning of Friday’s 7-2 victory over the Catamounts (0-2).

He never said a word about the injury to his catching hand to any teammates or coaches until after the game. He did serve notice from time-to-time, though, that something was wrong.

“There was a runner on second and third (Friday) and he tried to bunt,” Corbin said. “I got irritated with him and said something to him right there, but he never said anything to me. … A couple balls fell out of his glove, and we’re thinking he’s sloppy.

“… Your respect for kids just builds in situations like that.”

Giobbi is expected to be out four-six weeks.

Westlake was recruited as a corner infielder and only began catching regularly in January during workouts and scrimmages.

He was awaken by a phone call 8:15 a.m. Saturday with the news that he would be the catcher that day for pitcher Caleb Cotham.

“The first inning I actually had a little bit of nerves,” Westlake said. “After we got three quick outs, then having Caleb on the mound, a guy who throws a lot of strikes, made it much more comfortable.”

Cotham actually took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He faced one more than the minimum through six innings then allowed a one-out walk and – on just his 75th pitch – a two-out single.

He ultimately gave up three hits and two runs in eight innings. He struck out five and walked two as he improved to 2-0 on the season.

“I was trying to stay inning-to-inning, pitch-to-pitch, it just didn’t work out,” Cotham, a sophomore from Mt. Juliet said. “(A no-hitter) would have been nice, but we got the win so that’s really all that matters.”

The change in positions did nothing to alter the offensive production of Westlake, who primarily was the designated hitter for the first six games. He had four hits for the second straight day and finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored and raised his batting average to .565.

Vanderbilt outhit Vermont 16-4, but no other Commodore had more than two hits.

“For his first time catching, and in these kinds of conditions (Westlake) did unbelievable – as good as you could get, almost,” Cotham said. “My hat’s off to him. He caught a great game and stayed with it the whole time. That’s pretty impressive.”