Five-foot-five freshman Ro Coleman stood at the plate Sunday night with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth in a 2-2 game. If Ro could get Zander Wiel home from third, we would win the Regional and move on to the Super Regional. Ro had been struggling at the plate all year, but showed promise later in the season, and there is a ton of talent within this young, fireplug outfielder-second baseman. I see a lot of Tony Kemp in Ro. Ro worked the count to 3-1, and then got a fastball on the right side of the plate which he lined past the shortstop into left field for the game winning RBI to lead his team to a phenomenally exciting 3-2 victory over Oregon. It was magical really. It meant so much to Ro and Corbs. Corbs liked Ro up at the plate in that pinch hitting situation because Ro can really hit the fastball. Corbs had total confidence in him. The Oregon reliever, Jake Reed, tried to get a 92 MPH fastball by Ro, but Ro was up to the challenge and sent his  team to the Super Regionals where we will face the surging Stanford Cardinal this Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday, if necessary. It’s a best two-out-of-three format and will be played at the wildly exciting Hawkins Field at VU. The Hawk was electric over the weekend. The fans were awesome, loud and supportive of the team.

Corbs was emotional in the postgame press conference talking about Ro, who entered VU last fall from inner city Chicago. His father had been in jail when Ro started high school, but got out Ro’s junior year and supported his son and made sure he got his high school degree and focused on both academics and baseball. It’s an awesome success story for this little engine that could. So proud of Ro and so proud of the Vanderbilt Commodores.

The pitching was phenomenal throughout the weekend. Tyler Beede (Friday night), Carson Fulmer (Saturday) and Walker Buehler (Sunday) combined to go 3-0 with a collective 1.44 ERA and registered 27 strikeouts in 25 innings. Those three look like Major League arms in the future. Tyler is projected to be a top 10 pick in the draft this month according to  many scouting services. Carson will be right there after next year and Walker will be up there next year as well. Tyler is a junior, and Carson and Walker are sophomores. They’re stellar. With Walker pitching like he did Sunday, we now have three reliable, stud arms that we can go to in this Super Regional. If we can get that fourth guy and fifth guy, like Tyler Ferguson and Adam Ravanelle, to step up, we can be incredibly dangerous in the weeks ahead. Gotta take care of business this weekend first though. Tough test in a talented hitting team in Stanford.

Tyler went eight Friday night, giving up two hits, with two walks and 14 Ks. He threw 114 pitches in an 11-0 victory over Xavier. T.J. Pecoraro closed it out in the ninth. On Saturday, Carson went eight, giving up two runs on three hits with two walks and five K’s in a 7-3 victory over Oregon. Carson threw 122 pitches. Then in an all-world performance Sunday night, Walker went nine, gave up six hits, two earned runs, with one walk and 8 K’s. He threw 127 pitches. That’s a lot of pitches for those guys, but they’re workhorses and fortunately, they all have a week off to get their arms back to full strength for this weekend.

We committed two errors in 27 innings, which is pretty good. Would like to clean that up even more. Sophomore second baseman Dansby Swanson had a pretty good weekend at the plate getting four hits and is an exceptional player overall. Dansby is now hitting .335 on the season with 24 doubles. Freshman left fielder Bryan Reynolds is right behind Dansby hitting .326 with four homers and a team leading 48 RBIs. Bryan has 23 doubles.Shortstop Vince Conde is hitting .301 with four homers and 44 RBIs.We have hit 131 doubles this year, which is third in the country out of the 300 Division One teams. William and Mary led the country with 149, but they’re not in the postsesaon. Sophomore third baseman Xavier  Turner is hitting .284 with 15 doubles, Zander, hitting .270, has 12 doubles. Center fielder John Norwood, hitting .275, has 10 doubles. And right fielder Rhett Wiseman, hitting .269 with his average steadily climbing– he’s a natural hitter and the sophomore is loaded with talent– has 14 doubles on the season. Zander leads the team with five long ones, while Vinnie and Bryan both have four and Dansby three. I still think this team is capable of hitting it out more; possibly this weekend. Hawkins Field is more of a pitchers’ park with deeper power alleys and the Green Monster, the 35 foot wall in left, so some of our home runs in other parks are doubles at home. Still think we can go deep this weekend.

Tyler is now 8-7 with a 3.20 ERA, 43 walks and 106 K’s. Tyler seems to have it together after some struggles this season and with his 98 MPH fastball and his hard biting curve, he can be a major handful for opposing bats. Hope that continues this Friday. Play Stanford Friday in the first game at 1 PM ET/noon CT on ESPN2. Carson will get the call Saturday. He is 6-1 after taking a starting spot midway through the SEC season, and has a 1.42 ERA. Carson has 31 walks and 72 K’s. He also runs it up there 98 and can even hit triple digits when he’s pumped. Tyler can too. Tyler and Carson can walk some guys sometimes because they’re like Sonny Gray. Their balls just drop on their breaking pitches and can go in the dirt. Hitters a lot of times are so fooled by them that they swing and miss. Sometimes they may miss their mark, but I like our chances with those two on the mound on consecutive days. Walker will pitch Sunday, if necessary, and he’s 11-2 with a 2.27 ERA. He has 29 walks and 97 K’s. He’s another guy who can bring it 97-98. Walker’s got a turbo power charged arm like Tyler and Carson,  and he’s a major competitor, like those two. His mom is too. ESPN3 kept showing her and she was into it! It was fun to watch her.

We’re fielding at a .975 clip while our opponents are at .965. We have committed 59 errors in 62 games and our opponents have committed 81. Xavier leads the team with 8 errors, but he’s gotten better and better as the season has progressed. Xavier is a good third baseman. Vinnie and Dansby are solid up the middle at short and second respectively, and Zander is an excellent first baseman. Our outfield has steadily improved. John Norwood is an excellent center fielder who can go get it. Rhett in right and Bryan in left have done solid jobs. Jason Delay and Karl Ellison behind the plate keep getting better. Vinnie has only committed four errors in 235 chances and Dansby has seven errors in 291 chances. That’s pretty solid up the middle. Norwood has three errors in 92 chances. Our record, by the way, is 44-18. We’re 29-9 at home.

OK, onto the Cardinal. They can really hit. They beat national four seed Indiana 5-4 Monday night on a two-run homer by shortstop Tommy Edman in the bottom of the ninth to move onto Nashville for the Super Regional. They have some power and good bats in general. The Cardinal are 34-24 overall and 15-12 on the road. Center fielder Austin Slater leads them in hitting at .352 with two homers and 40 RBis. He has 17 doubles and six triples. Right fielder Zach Hoffpauir is hitting .332 with seven homers and 33 RBIs. Their big power bat is third baseman Alex Blandino, who is hitting .312 with 12 long ones and 42 RBis. First baseman Danny Diekroeger is hitting .307 with two homers, 22 RBis and 13 doubles. Diekroeger leads Stanford in stolen bases with eight. He is eight-for-10. They’re not a big base stealing team. They’ve only stolen 33 this year while we’ve stolen 92 led by Dansby, who is 17-for-22. Diekroeger, Blandino,  Slater and Hoffpauir hit  two, three, four and five in the batting order so that’s quite formidable and will be challenging for our pitchers.

Stanford’s key pitchers, who we’ll see this weekend, are John Hochstatter, who is 10-2 with a 2.84 ERA. He has 29 walks and 36 K’s, which is not that swift. Must be a ground ball or fly ball pitcher because those numbers are unusual. Cal Quantrill is 7-5 with a 2.69 ERA with 31 walks and 93 K’s. Brett Hanewich is 4-4 with a 3.42 ERA. He has 30 walks and 43 K’s. James Logan is 3-3 with a 4.77 ERA with 32 walks and 42 K’s. Stanford has committed just 44 errors on the season in 58 games and have a .977 fielding %, compared to our 59 errors in 62 games and a .975 %. So they’re  a good fielding team.

Their coach, Mark Marquess, is a legend in college baseball. In 38 years as the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball, Marquess is 1,495-781-7  (66%) with 12 Pac-10-(now Pac-12) conference titles, and two national championships in 1987 and 1988. His last CWS appearance was in 2008, where his team finished third. He took his team to the Super Regionals in 2011 and 2012. He has taken his teams to 14 College World Series appearances. Stanford’s roster is similar to ours with some young guys and some upperclassmen. Pretty similar matchup. We do have the edge in pitching, while the power hitting edge goes to them, and our defenses are pretty much a wash. They may have a slight edge there.

Corbs is in his 12th season and has a 513-247 record (67%) with three SEC regular season titles (2007, 2011 and 2013), one SEC tournament title (2007), and 10 NCAA appearances, five Super Regional appearances, and a College World Series appearance in 2011. Corbs can hold his own with anybody. So the coaching is a wash. The key to me is our pitching, solid defense and timely hitting, the keys to  making baseball teams successful. If Tyler and Carson can continue their dominance, and we field well behind them and hit in the clutch, I like our chances. Tyler, Carson and our bullpen, if called upon, will be tested. Stanford doesn’t  make a lot of mistakes out there and won’t beat themselves, so we’re going to just have to outplay them.

It all starts Friday at 1 PM ET/noon CT on ESPN2. Saturday’s game will also be on ESPN2 at 3 PM ET/2 CT as will Sunday’s @ 3 PM ET/2 CT o on the deuce if necessary. The deuce obviously likes this matchup of classic universities with spectacular baseball programs. I’ll have starting pitching matchups once I find them out;  hopefully today or tomorrow, but Friday morning for sure if not today or tomorrow.

In the pros, it’s not going well for the Rays, but David Price has been in the news after he hit Big Papi in the back last Friday night. Papi went off on David in the press and I thought Dave handled it well. Papi showed Dave up last year in a playoff game in Boston when he stood and admired his three-run shot in a Red Sox win. Dave remembered that, and like all tough competitors showed Papi he wasn’t going to be bullied around, so he hit him in the back. It didn’t hurt Ortiz, but he went off, really overreacted. Dave handled it well and wants to move on. Maybe Ortiz can get over it too.

Dave is 4-4 on the season with a 4.27 ERA with an astounding nine walks and 90 strikeouts. I think he’s pitching well this year, though he’s had a few hiccups. Still pitching great ball, but his team needs to get it together. Rays 12 back of Toronto in the East at 23-36. Injuries and hitting woes have plagued them. They usually get it together and get in the playoffs, but they HAVE to get started right now. Dave on the hill tonight vs. Tom Koehler of the Marlins. Koehler is 4-5 with a 3.18 ERA with 28 walks and 45 K’s.  The Marlins have already taken two from the Rays in Miami this week, now Dave and the Rays host the Marlins for one  tonight and a game tomorrow afternoon at the Trop. The Marlins are playing pretty well @ 30-28, and are a game and a half back of the Braves in the NL East.

Mike on the hill for Bravos today against the Mariners. Game going on right now. Through three innings pitched, MIke has given up one hit, no runs with one walk and four K’s. Mike is 2-3 with a 3.41 ERA with 10 walks and 34 K’s. Sonny is 6-1 with a 2.45 ERA for the A’s. Pitching terrifically. He goes Saturday night at Baltimore against Chris Tillman (5-2, 4.63 ERA). Sonny won his last outing over the Angels on Sunday, 6-1, going 6.2 innings, giving up seven hits, three earned with three walks and five K’s. With Dave, Mike and Sonny, we have three excellent arms in the majors. Update: Mike and Braves down 1-0 to Hisashi Iwakuma and the M’s. Iwakuma is 3-2 with a 2.68 ERA, so he’s pretty formidable. He’s gone 6.2 innings giving up six hits, no runs, with no walks and seven K’s. Braves just got out, 1-0, top seven. Mike is pitching well giving up one run on five hits with three walks and 10 K’s. Mariners not a great hitting team, so Mike doing well. Mike has thrown 109 pitches with 66 strikes and 43 balls. May be coming out in the seventh.

Pedro is starting to turn it on. While his average is only .227, it has steadily climbed since the beginning of May, when it was in the .170’s. He hit his 11th homer last night and his 33rd RBI. The Pirates took two of three in LA over the weekend and have won the first two at San Diego. They are getting it going and are 28-30 now and only 6.5 back of the Brew Crew in the NL Central. They are getting it together now after  struggling for much of the first two months. They’re hitting it well and the starting pitching has picked it up. Their bullpen is exceptional, though I get concerned about closer Jason Grilli at times, because while he has  been an excellent closer in the past, at least last year, he’s had some struggles this year. He’s had an injury, so that could have some impact on some of his struggles this season. But I completely trust the rest of the bullpen. Pirates getting hot.

Excellent news for the football team in the past week as we got a 2015 commit from high three-star qb (according to 247 sports) Kyle Shurmur from Wyndmoor, Pa. Shurmur is a 5.5 three-star by Rivals, but has an 88 composite three-star rating by 247. I watched him on film and liked what I saw. Great with the 15-20 yard pass and the Peyton Manning short passing game. Didn’t see him throw a lot of deep ones, but looks to have a strong arm and can run a little bit. He completed 59% of his passes as a junior (183-of-310), for 2,502 yards and 26 TDs. Couldn’t find his interceptions for last season, but midway through he had six, so I hope he held that number in check the rest of the season. His father, Pat, is the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, so there are very good bloodlines there.

Also, quarterback Stephen Rivers is officially a Dore. Stephen is 6’6″, 6’7′, 230 pounds who has now officially transferred from LSU. Stephen was a 5.7 three-star coming out of high school, one tenth below a four-star, but couldn’t crack the starting lineup at LSU with Zach Mettenberger running the show in Baton Rouge. Stephen will definitely compete for the starting spot with Johnny McCrary and Patton Robinette this August. Stephen will have two years left to play. Should be very interesting competition at quarterback. In two years as quarterback at Athens (Al) High School, Stephen threw for 3,300 yards and 35 TDs. Stephen’s brother is Philip, the starting quarterback for the San Diego Chargers, who has had a good career with some good years ahead of him. Philip, 32 years old, was an exceptional quarterback at N.C. State, and was a first round draft pick by the New York Giants in 2004, the fourth overall pick. He was traded to San Diego just after the draft for Eli Manning, the first pick that year. Philip has had a pretty good career. I know he wants Super Bowl/Bowls in San Diego and he has an excellent head coach, Mike McCoy, there now, so he could do it in the next couple of years. Stephen looks to me like he’s cut from the same cloth. Philip is hyper competitive, so I imagine Stephen will bring that to Nashville, which is always a good character trait in football. The Friday cookout/Friday Night lights recruiting weekend is coming up. I’m trying to find out if that’s this Friday night or next Friday night, but there will be some excellent 2015 and 2016 prospects there, so we could have some commits coming up. Football roster looks good for next year. Like our defense a lot. Coaches Mason and Kotulski are going to bring a physical, hard-nosed approach to defense, and we have a ton of talent on that side of the ball. Should be really good on defense. Offense looks extremely good up front. Running backs need to stay healthy for the most part, but we’ve got speed and some power there. Quarterback, as always, will have to be good. Our tight ends should be excellent. Really like what I’m seeing out of Nathan Marcus, Steven Scheu and company  there. Derek and Coach Dorrell love tight ends in their offense, so those guys will be a major part of our attack. Wide receiver is not incredibly deep but guys like Jordan Cunningham, Latevius Rayford, Gerald Perry and DeAndre Woods are talented and Cunningham and Woods have good size, while Rayford and Perry have explosiveness and game-breaking ability. We open with Temple on Thursday, Aug. 28th, @ 9:15 PM ET/8:15 CT on the SEC Network. Hopefully DirecTV or Charter users will be able to get the Network. It’s a must. Ole Miss comes to visit LP Field in Nashville the next Saturday, Sept.6th, @ 4:30 PM ET/3:30 CT on ESPN. Should be a classic there. We then host UMass and South Carolina, go to Kentucky and Georgia, host Charleston Southern, we’re @ Mizzou, home with Old Dominion and the Gators, we’re @ State and then host UT. Hopefully we’re looking at a big season. I don’t want to predict a record, because I want to win them all. If I had to estimate I’d put it at 8-9 wins again with a possible ninth or 10th win in a bowl game, But I think we have a shot in every game. We’ve got great players and I really like our new coaches.

Basketball has been a roller coaster. We lost two assistants, but just hired two more. David Cason joined Shaka Smart’s staff at VCU and world class recruiter Yanni Hufnagel joined Cuonzo Martin’s staff at Cal. But Kevin has made two excellent young coaching hires in Adam Cohen from Harvard and Derrick Jones from La. Tech. Harvard has been excellent recently, going to the NCAA tourney the last two years and beating a highly ranked New Mexico team in 2013.  Cohen is 28 years old and hungry. Looks like an outstanding recruiter. Derrick helped lead La Tech to 27 wins in 2013 and 29 wins in 2014. He coached under a fine young coach in Mike White. Jones is 31 and an excellent recruiter and excellent in working with the big men, which should really help Damian Jones, James Siakam, Josh Henderson, Luke Kornet and Shelby Moats next year. Really like what the next couple of years holds for Damian and Luke and James is talented. If Josh can get healthy and Shelby can improve, we should be pretty good underneath. We now have five players coming in this year in four-stars Wade Baldwin (point guard or two guard, 6″3″, 180), Matthew Fisher-Davis (shooting guard, 6″4″, 175), recent four-star point guard signee Shelton Mitchell (6’2 1/2″, 186), high three-star shooting guard Riley LeChance (6’2″, 180), and 6’6″, 210 power forward Jeff Roberson, who is a solid three-star. I’ve watched film on all five and like how they play. Excellent additions to the team. The question is will Kedran Johnson and Dai-Jon Parker be back. It’s not looking that great, but if the guys can’t cut it off the court academically and behaviorally, we have to move on. Kede was suspended for the year last year, and it’s not looking totally optimistic that he’ll be back. Dai-Jon may be gone to for violation of team rules–again. But some more good news is that we have two Rivals 150 players committed for 2015 in four-star small forward Joseph Toye (6’7″, 190), and high three-star shooting guard Camron Justice (6’2″, 175). So while we’ve had some tough  things happen, there are a lot of positives going on with the program. I love the additions of Adam and Derrick and love the recruits coming in. Next year will be interesting to see how our young team develops. I think next year is sort of a youthful year, but we have guys who will fight hard and may make it to the tourney with some excellent development through the season. The future looks very bright. Don’t forget walk on point guard Carter Josephs and walk on shooting guard Nathan Watkins. Love their attitudes and their effective players. So they’ll help next year too.

Should be a stellar weekend at the Hawk. Will keep you posted on everything going on.

Spurs in 7 over the Heat. The Big Fundamental gets it done and may retire after his fifth title. What a career.