Riley Nelson sent a ball into the Nashville night, hit high and far. It wasn’t a question of whether it would clear the fence, only whether it was fair or foul.
Nelson thought the ball was fair the whole time. He looked back at the home plate umpire, who didn’t signal anything. He looked at the first base umpire, who threw his hands up to signal a foul ball.
Convinced the ball was fair, Nelson immediately signaled for a replay review. Before Vanderbilt baseball could ask for one, the umpires conferenced and changed the call, ruling it a home run. Wright State then asked for a review, but the call stood as a home run as no camera angle was conclusive. That gave the Commodores a 4-3 lead which they wouldn’t relinquish to survive the Raiders’ scare and win the regional opener.
Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin also thought the ball was fair.
“I didn’t think it was a decision,” Corbin said. “I just thought he hit it so hard and so high that it had cleared the pole, and then after it went past the pole, it went the other direction. But I actually didn’t think it was a decision. And then when the umpires got together, they all thought, they all saw it in the manner that I did.”
Wright State coach Alex Sogard said he disagreed with the manner in which the call was made, but he did not know if the ball was fair or foul.
“It’s kind of a tough angle from the side, like I think everything to right field seems foul,” Sogard said. “So I didn’t have the best angle. He obviously hit it well. So I thought it was a tough one to overturn. I did not agree with the explanation, but I don’t want to get into that too much. I think if you leave it in the umpires’ hands, it’s tough.”
Riley Nelson not the first home run controversy at Hawkins Field
The left- and right-field lines at Hawkins Field are notorious for difficult angles on fair or foul home run calls. There have been multiple controversies over the past several years of whether balls were fair or foul. Most notably, in 2023, a Razorbacks ball down the right-field line was called a home run despite appearing foul on the TV broadcast. During a series against Georgia in April, the Bulldogs’ Kolby Branch thought he had hit a home run down the left-field line and took a home run trot before realizing the umpires had called it foul. Georgia asked for a review on that ball but the call was upheld.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.
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