TURF TALK

On March 8, after a 4-3 win against Texas Christian to wrap his team’s time in the Southern California College Baseball Classic in Los Angeles, Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin was recounting some of the positives he took away from the weekend, a frustrating 1-2 showing for a Commodores team that still hadn’t quite found its footing.

One was that his team played some quality competition on the road on a natural grass surface, and if that last detail sounds trivial, consider that the Commodores play all of their home games on a very fast turf surface, and to that point, they had played all but three of their games at home.

“There’s so much value to going on the road,” Corbin said. “Getting out of your comfort zone, playing on grass and dirt … and playing good opponents. We need that.”

While grass is the default in pro ball, playing surfaces can vary widely