Not a very good day for David Price at Fenway Park in the BoSox home opener at Fenway against the Orioles. David was spotted a three run lead, but couldn't hold it. With a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, he gave up a two run single to Chris "Crash Davis" and then a three run shot to Mark Trumbo to go down, 5-3. The Red Sox came back and tied it in the sixth, but Craig Kimbrel, a big offseason pickup by the Sox along with David, gave up a three run homer to Davis in the top of the ninth as the BoSox took a 9-7 loss to the O's. The Sox dropped to 3-3 on the season and the Orioles moved to 6-0. Pedro wasn't the designated hitter and Ryan Flaherty came in late and had one at bat with a strikeout, but the Orioles, with their massive power, kind of like the Orioles under the legendary Earl Weaver in the late 60's and 70's, used their long ball to stay unblemished in the AL East. The Orioles are at Boston today and tomorrow as part of a three game set.
David went five, gave up five hits, five runs, all earned, with two walks and eight K's. He threw 103 pitches with 65 for strikes and 38 balls, not his typical command. He was hitting 93 consistently and hit 94 and even 95 one time, but the Orioles were just a Bash Brothers group that were extremely hard to pitch against. Kimbrel, to me, has been a disaster the last couple of years, ever since leaving the Braves. I'm not sure John Farrell and his team wouldn't be better served by using the awesome Koji Uehara as their closer. Uehara is 40 years old, but is as good as ever. His ERA is still 0.00. He's lockdown. If Kimbrel dogs it again, Farrell should turn to Uehara to close. He almost single-handedly won the World Series for the BoSox in 2013.
David needs to get it back together. He wasn't terrible yesterday, and this O's lineup has some serious sluggers, but he'll need a bounce back performance Saturday at Fenway against another hitting machine in the Toronto Blue Jays. David now 1-1 with a 5.73 ERA. Needs improvement.
Sonny was not his best last night either against the Angels in a 4-1 A's loss. Sonny went 6.1 innings, giving up three runs, including a two run shot to the awesome Mike Trout, six hits, three walks and six K's. He threw 92 pitches, 53 for strikes with 39 balls. Not his best night. His fastball looked good for a while as he was bringing it 93-94 in the O.co. Coliseum at Oakland, and his curve was pretty solid for the most part. Not as electric as usual, but pretty good. He was relying on his fastball a lot, and Trout got a hold of one and launched it into the left field seats. The A's dropped to 4-4 on the season and the Angels moved to 3-4. The A's are tied with the Texas Rangers for the lead in the AL West at 4-4. Sonny goes again Sunday at home against a very good Kansas City Royals team and a solid pitcher in Kris Medlen. Sonny is now 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA. He had such a good opening game against the White Sox, that his ERA was 1.29 coming into last night' game. So Sonny also needs a better outing on Sunday, the day after Dave goes.
The women's tennis team had a hard fought match that they prevailed in over No.27 Arkansas, 4-3. Senior Courtney Colton clinched it with a clutch victory for the girls. We lost the doubles point, and No. 19 Sydney Campbell lost at No.1, but No.13 Frances Altick won at No.2, No. 21 Astra Sharma won at No.3 and Fernanda Contreras won at No.6. Georgina Sellyn lost at No.5. But all tied at 3-3, Courtney came through in the clutch with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory.
The girls moved to 16-4 on the season and 9-2 in the SEC. We have home matches left this Friday and Sunday against Auburn and Alabama, respectively, before heading to the SEC Tournament, which commences on Wednesday, April 20th, in Baton Rouge, LA. The Auburn match starts at 4 PM CT on Friday, and the Alabama match is Sunday at 1 PM CT. We are now ranked sixth in the country by the ITA, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, trailing No.'s 1-5, Cal, UNC, Georgia, Florida and Ohio State. Frances is ranked No.13 in the country, Sydney is 19th and Astra is 21st.
Baseball hosts Middle Tennessee State at home at 6:30 PM CT. The game will be carried on SEC Network+ on the computer. Gotta take care of business tonight and then Kentucky comes into town for a huge weekend series. Kentucky is 8-4 in the conference and 22-9 overall and we are 7-5 and 25-7 overall. We are ranked fourth in the USA Today Coaches' Poll and fifth in the D-1 Baseball,com poll. Miami, Florida and A&M are 1, 2,3 in the Coaches' poll, and Miami, Mississippi State, Florida and FSU are 1,2,3,4 in the D1 poll. Kentucky is No.18 in the D1 poll, and 23rd in the Coaches' poll.
But we've gotta be serious tonight. MTSU is 14-17, but this is huge for them. It's like their CWS game, so they'll be pumped up. Not sure who's starting for us, but I'll guess it's left hander Ryan Johnson. I'll have a write up tomorrow morning.
Bryan Reynolds was on fire last week. He was seven for 12 in four games, that's a .583 average. One of the games was a 4-3 victory over Lipscomb, and the other three were against LSU on the road, where we dropped two of three, but won the third game in dramatic fashion. Reynolds had two doubles, two homers and six Ribeyes. Bryan is now hitting .329 with eight homers, 34 ribbies and nine doubles. Jeren Kendall leads the team at .346 with six homers and 36 RBIs and had a monster game Sunday against LSU in which he was four-for-five and hit the game clinching three run homer in the top of the eighth. Jeren came up hugely clutch. Just gotta get third baseman Will Toffey's bat going. They are our big three guys and leaders on the team. We've got a lot of good young players, and senior Tyler Campbell is giving us some great work at short and second, but if Toffey can get his bat going and all the younger guys and older guys keep getting better, and we get steallar pitching and defense, this team can be a special group. They already are as people, but I'm just talking about going deep in the postseason. South Carolina is leading the East at 10-2, and they are 28-5 overall. Florida is second at 8-4, tied with Kentucky, and 29-5 overall. Florida has quite a team and the other two are very good, too. So plenty of work remaining beginning tonight at home.