Baseball surging
We have some stellar freshmen on this team who are making a major impact already and can help take us a long way this season. Freshman left fielder Brian Reynolds is hitting .361 with two homers, including one yesterday against Belmont in an 8-4 victory, and 21 RBIs. Brian has 10 doubles and a triple to go along with those other numbers. He’s a very good outfielder as well. Ro Coleman, a Tony Kemp look alike at the plate and on the basepaths, is another frosh who’s starting to make an impact. Ro is playing the outfield right now, but can play second although Dansby Swanson with his stellar play has that position locked down right now. Ro got off to a slow start at the plate, but belted a homer last night. Both Brian and Ro are switch hitters which is an asset. Freshman Hayden Stone has pitched 17.2 innings in relief and has been dominant. Hayden, in eight games, has an 0.51 ERA with three walks and 30 K’s. Really an awesome pitcher and just seems like a veteran on the mound and kind of has a veteran personality. Kind of like a Carson Fulmer.
As for the upperclassmen, Swanson is hitting .329 and has 11 stolen bases in 14 attempts leading off for us. Dansby plays some fantastic second base too, and made a key play last night playing third getting the third out to end the game on a heads up play to get to the bag before the runner got to third on a ground ball. Zander Wiel is hitting .32o with a homer and 12 RBIs. Zander is more of a run producer/ power guy than he has been so far, so he should start getting his power numbers up. But he’s hitting it well and playing excellent first base. And Corbs can’t ask for anything better than the job he’s getting from Vinnie Conde at short. Vinnie has committed only one error this year, made some very clutch plays at short and is hitting .319 with a homer and 15 RBIs. We are hitting .288 as a team. Would like to see that get up over .300, the bats are taking some time to get going at least with some of the guys, but as the weather keeps warming up, we’ll see the averages keep moving up and some more deep ones and run producing hits. Pitching and defense has been stellar for the most part. Watched Jared Miller pitch against LSU and was highly impressed with Jared. Throws hear and has a nice curve to go along with it. Jared looks like he’s bringing it about 93-95 MPH, he’s 5-0 with a 0.57 ERA with seven walks and 24 K’s. Tyler Beede, the leader of the staff and our Friday night starter, is having a nice season too. Tyler is 4-1 with an 0.84 ERA, with six walks and 40 K’s. Like what I’m seeing out of Tyler. Tyler lost a tough one last Friday night to LSU with some questionable defense behind him, but he pitched a good game and could have easily won it as we had a 1-0 lead late in the game. Tyler Ferguson, our Sunday starter, is 3-0 with a 1.63 ERA. Tyler struggled a little bit last Saturday night in the second game of the twin bill with LSU (weather on Sunday forced us to play two Saturday), but has been pretty good this season. Carson Fulmer is just a fun guy to watch pitch. He reminds me of David Price and Sonny Gray, guys who just really compete and to me are the most fun guys to watch pitch in baseball along with Justin Verlander, Yu Darvish, Felix Hernandez and Clayton Kershaw. I love Carson. He’s awesome. I nine games, all in relief, he’s got six saves and has a 1.12 ERA. He has walked seven and K’d 23. His fastball was hitting 97 last Saturday against LSU. Brain Miller very solid as our closer with an 0.00 ERA in 11 games, with one walk and 11 K’s.
Overall, we’re 19-3 after the victory over Belmont yesterday and after taking two of three from LSU @ home last weekend. That was our first conference series. We’re 2-1. In the polls, we’re No.3 in the USA Today Coaches Poll behind No.1 Florida State and No.2 South Carolina. We’re No.3 in Collegiate Baseball behind No.1 SC and No.2 FSU. We’re No.6 in the Baseball America Poll, behind from one to five, South Carolina, FSU, Virginia, Oregon State and Louisiana Lafayette. In the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll (heretofore called the NCBAWA poll) we’re No.5 behind from one to five, FSU, South Carolina, UVA and Oregon State.
We’re playing good baseball. We have State this weekend at State and they’re anywhere from No.18- No.23 in the polls; they’re a good team. They’ve had good pitching the last couple of years. Should be a challenge this weekend. Friday night’s game is @ 7:30 ET/6:30 CT and will be televised by CSS. Saturday’s game at 8:30 PM ET/7:30 CT will be on ESPNU. Sunday’s game is @ 2:30 PM ET/1:30 CT but not televised.
Little concerned with Xavier Turner’s play in the field. He’s committed six errors, but I saw him make a really nice diving stop and throw on Saturday against LSU. Xavier has a cannon for an arm; he just needs to settle down out there. He’s hitting .293 with no homers and 12 RBIs, so he can do better at the plate. Xavier is a talented player, so he should get it together.
Big weekend series at State. Should be a war all weekend. In our victory last night, Walker Buehler moved to 4-1 as our mid-week starter going six, allowing four hits, one earned, with two walks and eight K’s Walker is talented. He has a 2.03 ERA with 11 walks and 30 K’s.
In the big leagues, David, Pedro, Sonny and Ryan Flaherty are all performing well. Actually Sonny’s been struggling some so he needs a couple of more good outings to get back to being Sonny. His ERA is 6.30, so that has to improve. Still like Sonny in the Oakland A’s starting rotation when the season starts. Their opening day starter, Parker, is hurt, so if Sonny performs better from here on out, he could be the guy on opening night.
David off to an excellent start in spring training for the Rays. Dave is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA with two walks and 15 Ks. Looking for a big year from Dave and the Rays. Looks like David will be a Ray at least for another year. He loves the Rays and the Rays love him. I wish there was a way we could keep him in Tampa for the long haul. The Rays are 12-4 in the Grapefruit League and leading it. We’ve got a shot this year to go all the way like we always do. The pitching and defense are definitely there, just need to get some quality hitting this year. Pedro is hitting .300. He’s struck out some but has a couple of homers. Ryan Flaherty is doing a nice job for the Orioles hitting .297 and playing flawless second base. Ryan has a good shot to be the starter at second for the Birds. Mike Minor is out until April 12th, but should be ready to go then. He’s had some shoulder tightness, but Mike should be ready to go the second week in April.
Basketball:
Pretty pumped about our basketball recruiting class. Watched film on four-stars Wade Baldwin and Matthew Fisher-Davis and high three-star Riley LeChance. Wade and Riley can play the point or the two. MFD can play two or three. Wade averaged 15 and eight assists. Excellent player and kid. We’re going to really like him. He’s 6’3″, 185. Riley averaged over 20 and MFD averaged 25. All three can fill it up from the outside. Wade and MFD are excellent athletes and Riley looks like he has a very high basketball IQ. All three will help us a lot next year and in the ensuing years. MFD is 6’5″, 195 and Riley is 6’2″, 180. Our three-star small forward commit, Jeff Roberson, looks like a real good player. Very athletic at 6’6″, 210, has good hops and can finish well at the basket. Looks like a pretty good shooter too. We are in it heavily for three-star power forward Jackson Davis of Lexington, Ky. Jackson is 6’8″, 215 and can give us a lot of athletic ability, power and rebounding. Looks like a skilled player too. We had an in home visit from our coaches last night. Would love to lock down Jackson which would be an exclamation point on a stellar class. As for the present guys, Dai-Jon was playing exceptional basketball at the end of the year. Excited about what Dai-Jon can do his senior year. Damian Jones will be a force in the middle and James Siakam just needs to improve his offensive game and he can be a key player for us. Luke Kornet is going to be a very good player for us with his 7’0″ frame and his three-point shooting ability. Needs to get stronger and work on his defense, but that can happen. Like Luke’s future. Shelby Moats can help us next year. Shelby just needs some more confidence. He should be a good player for us his senior year. The walk-ons, point guard Carter Josephs and small forward Nathan Watkins proved they’ll help us too. Carter did a really nice job spelling Kyle. Smart player who doesn’t turn the ball over and makes things happen with his passing and defense. Carter can be a plus for us next year. Needs to develop an outside shot, but he’s working hard on it as assistant coach Yanni Hufnagel said he was returning from a recruiting trip two weeks ago and got in at 12:30 AM and Carter was shooting. Love that commitment. Nathan needs to work on all areas of his game, but he’s a hustler and he’s tough. If Kedren Johnson can get back on the team from suspension, that would be a huge lift. Kedren is an excellent point guard and can carry a team with his play. He and Dai-Jon in the backcourt would be highly formidable. Josh Henderson will try to come back from his terrible knee injury he suffered in December in which he tore his ACL and MCL. Brutal. If Josh can somehow make it back that would make our front court that much stronger with Josh at 6’10”, 235. Put some weight and strength on Luke and have James, Damian, Luke and Shelby underneath and we’ve got a pretty impressive front line. Add Nathan, MFD, Jeff Roberson and hopefully Jackson Davis to the mix and we’ve got a potentially excellent rebounding group. Dan Bodner of Kentucky 247 Sports Crystal Balled Jackson to us on February 23rd. Will keep you posted if that happens.
I loved how Wade Baldwin told Rivals that he saw “warriors” on this team. Even though he said the record wasn’t great, he loved the heart of this group and the fight they brought to every battle. That’s a testament to Kevin and the coaching staff along with Kyle, Rod and the guys this year. We were warriors. We fought hard every game. Glad Wade pointed that out. He said he can’t wait to be a part of that mentality next year. He will room with MFD.
Football team:
Football looks good in spring. Quarterbacks coming along. We could have a transfer quarterback, Stephen Rivers, coming our way soon. Stephen is transferring from LSU and would be immediately eligible to compete in the fall. He’s 6’8″, 235, and is Phillip Rivers brother. Philip Rivers brother. Philip, as most of you know, is the quarterback for the San Diego Chargers who had an excellent college career at North Carolina State. He’s got a lot of talent, but hasn’t achieved all he wants to on the football field. But he’s getting better in the NFL, so I think we could be getting a good player. A lot of 2015 recruits on campus this weekend for our junior day. Multiple four-stars and high three-stars. Could be some commits coming out of it. Spring ball is going well. Defense is good, secondary guys playing really well, linebacker deep and talented as is the front line. Offense will be as good as our quarterback takes us. Either Johnny McCary or Patton Robinette or possibly Stephen Rivers will determine what kind of season we have offensively. The line is loaded, Andrew Jelks is a leader according to Derek Mason. Andrew was a four-star out of high school two years ago and will play a major role on the line. We return four of five starters and there is a lot of depth. We do lose Wesley Johnson who was stellar, but there is a lot of talent. From what I’ve been reading Brian Kimbrow is doing some excellent things at running back. We’ve got BK, Jerron Seymour and a bigger back in Ralph Webb, who will be a redshirt freshman and has some size. Freshman Dallas Rivers will give us some added depth and talent. Dallas is 6’2″, 205. We might try some more guys there. C.J. Duncan, a redshirt freshman, is having a good camp at wide receiver. Some others are coming along, Jordan Cunningham, Latevius Rayford. Got some good young ones out there, just need to develop them. Tight end coming along with Steven Scheu and some others. Open with Temple, Thursday, August 28th. Time to be determined. I’m expecting us to be on ESPN or at least the Deuce. Once I hear more about practice I’ll pass it along.
Brandt, Jon Curran, VU golf:
Finally, saw an interview with Brandt on Feherty last night. If you’re not familiar with David Feherty, his show is pretty funny. The guy is totally irreverent. He’s funny. Brandt said he was “proud of myself” for winning the Fed Ex Cup two years ago and for his performance at Augusta in 2008. He needs to get more proud of himself this season as he’s been in a slump. Would kind of like it if he held off on the “proud of myself” comments. I know golf is an individual sport and it’s just you and the course, but Brandt needs to show a little more humility in his interviews. Really like him though. He’s a great guy. Brandt is playing at the Arnie Invitational at Bay Hill Golf Course this week starting tomorrow. He tees off @ 8:11 AM ET/7:11 CT tomorrow and is playing with Bubba and Rickie Fowler. Should be a marquee group there. Would love to see Brandt get it done at Bay HIll. Big time tournament.
Jon Curran, VU 2009, won the Brasil Champions Presented by HSBC in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Jon played outstanding golf shooting 61, 64, 65 and 69. Wow! Great stuff. Jon is now second on the 25, which if he finishes in the top 25, would get him on the tour next year. He’s made over $150K so far. Luke still out there, but needs to keep improving. Struggled so far.
The men’s golf team won the Talis Park Challenge last week and Carson Jacobs tied for low medalist honors shooting 70-73-72 in some tough condition (very windy). We won by 19 shots over Wichita State. There were 14 teams in the field. The tournament was in Naples, Florida. Our next tournament is the Mason Rudolph Championship in Franklin, Tn., April 4-6th. Coach Scott Limbaugh is doing an excellent job with our golf program. Will have anything else on the other sports. Tennis is doing well both men and women.
Women’s Bball
The women’s basketball team made the NCAA tournament for the 15th year in a row. That’s awesome. They’ll face Arizona State at 11 AM ET/10 CT and the game will be on ESPN2 with some others in a wrap around coverage. We are a number eight seed and Zona State is No.9. If we win, we’ll play the Notre Dame-Robert Morris winner, which will be Notre Dame. I don’t watch much women’s college basketball, hardly any, but Notre Dame and Connecticut are in a league by themselves. But we’ll hopefully take care of business with Zona State and go from there. Might have to check it out.
I will be in touch later on…
