UConn 64, Kentucky 60

David Price didn’t get the win Saturday night, but he battled after giving up four runs to the Rangers and the Rays came back to beat the Texas team, 5-4 Saturday night. After giving up four runs in the first four innings, Dave kept the Rangers at four and the Rays came back from a 4-1 deficit to get the victory. Down 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth, first baseman James Loney hit a two-run double and new closer Grant Balfour, who was with the Rays earlier in his career, finished off the game to get his first save of the season. Like Balfour a lot. Think he’s an upgrade from Fernando Rodney, who went to the Seattle Mariners. David pitched six, gave up nine hits, four earned  with no walks and six K’s. David now has allowed only one walk in 13 innings. He threw 99 pitches, 67 for strikes. He has now thrown 201 pitches, with 141 for strikes and 6o balls. That’s a 2.35:1 ratio. 2:1 is excellent on strike-balls. 2.35:1 is sensational. He’s just a strike thrower and his curve, cutter, changeup and his 92-94 MPH fastball are all clicking. He’s become such a more versatile pitcher the last two years. With his development of a very good curve and a nice changeup, that makes his fastball and cutter so much more effective. Dave now 1-0 with a 4.05 ERA. The Rangers hit him a little bit at first, but a couple of those were bloopers and not very hard hit grounders that found holes. David has a tough matchup this Friday night (April 11) in Cincy as he faces the awesome Johnny Cueto of the Reds who is 0-1 but has a 1.93 ERA and has 17 K’s in his first two outings, nine against the Mets last Saturday and eight against the Cards last Monday, opening day. Cueto can bring it, so it should be pretty epic.

Sonny got the W yesterday against the Mariners pitching six innings and giving up three runs on six hits with two walks and three K’s. Like David, he gave up some runs to the Mariners early, but only one earned. He settled down and got the last nine of 10 batters he faces in the fourth through  the sixth, and the A’s down 3-0, got a three run shot from Brandon Moss to tie it and a solo shot from Yoenis Cspedes in the bottom of the eighth. A’s beat the M’s, 6-3. Sonny threw 98 pitches, 57 for strikes. His curve ball and sinker are so exact that they can hit the dirt sometimes.  Sonny walked three and struck out seven Monday night with 105 pitches, 64 for strikes. He’s thrown 203 pitches, 121 for strikes and 82 for balls. 59% of his pitches are strikes. Sonny’s a battler; he throws some balls and has walks, but he gets it done. Sonny faces King Felix Hernandez Friday night in Seattle. King Felix has been awesome, going 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA with 19 K’s and just two walks in 14.1 innings pitched. Sonny will really have to dig deep in this one. Another epic there.

Pedro didn’t get a hit Saturday or Sunday, but was walked three times Saturday and walked and scored the winning run for the Pirates yesterday in their 2-1 victory over the Cardinals. Pedro scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh with the score tied at 1-1, He scored from first on an RBI double by first baseman Gabby Sanchez. The Bucs took two of three from the Cards in the Steel City over the weekend. The Bucs are now 4-2, the Rays are 4-3 and the A’s are 3-3. The Rays are at Kansas City for three, the Bucs are off today then go to Chicago to face the Cubbies for three and the A’s are @ Minnesota tonight, Wednesday and Thursday.

Ryan Flaherty played shortstop and got his first hit this season in the top of the ninth in an Orioles 3-1 victory over the Tigers at Detroit. Ryan singled. The O’s are 2-4 and go to the Yankees for three tonight through Wednesday. Hopefully Ryan can get that bat going so he can stay in the starting lineup. They’re moving him around from third, to second to short. He’s a very good utility player, but I really liked him as a shortstop at VU. He played with Pedro and Dave.

Our team had their struggles this weekend at Knoxville. Won Friday night, 6-4, but lost a real heartbreaker Saturday night, 9-8 and lost yesterday with probably a little bit of a hangover from the tough loss Saturday night. We lost 7-0 yesterday. Our pitching and defense really let us down Saturday as we committed five errors. The usually sure handed Dansby Swanson committed two errors. Zander Wiel got hurt in the game and it looks like he might have hyper extended his elbow. Hopefully we can get Zander back pretty soon because he’s an excellent first baseman and when he gets that bat going, he’s lethal. But we have other options without Zander and some good backups. Play a good Indiana State team that is 21-7 and has beaten top 25 team Indiana. The game is tomorrow @ 7:30 PM ET/6:30 CT and is on vucommodores.com. We play Texas A&M at home over the weekend. A&M is 19-14 and 5-7 in the SEC, but they did defeat us last year in the first game of the SEC tournament, so they’re certainly capable. We are now 25-8 and 6-6 in the conference. We are now No.11 in the Baseball America Poll. That’s the only one out right now. The others will be out soon. FSU is still No.1, Virginia, Louisiana Lafayette (are you kiddin me?)  Cal-Poly (I repeat, are you kiddin me?) and South Carolina round out the top five. SC did get swept by Arkansas at Arkansas over the weekend. Not sure how they remained in the top 5. Not so sure how trustable this BA poll is. South Carolina and Florida are 7-5 to lead the East. Kentucky and us are 6-6. Alabama leads the west at 8-4. Ole Miss is 7-5 and LSU is 6-5.

The good news is that shortstop Vince Conde is having a breakout junior season. Vinnie is now hitting .352 and leading the team in hitting. He was four-for-five Saturday night and was a triple short of hitting for the cycle. He crushed a deep one. Vinnie also has only two errors in 128 chances. Playing excellent short.

Just need  to regroup. This game against Indiana State tomorrow is critical.

Will have more baseball as the week/weekend progresses and of course, football and basketball news when it comes up. Spring game Saturday at 10 AM CT in the stadium. Should be televised by CSS on a tape delayed basis on Sunday. Will post any key recruiting news. Not visits, commits!