Vanderbilt (51-20) vs. Virginia (43-24)

First pitch: 7 PM CT/ 8 PM ET

ESPN: Karl Ravech, Kyle Peterson Aaron Boone, Jessica Mendoza, Kaylee Hartung

Weather: 89 degrees at first pitch, 5 % rain, wind SSE at 11 MPH. That should be good for the long ball

Pitchers:

VU

RHP Walker Buehler: 5-2, 2.85 ERA, 85.1 innings, 25 walks, 89 K’s. 11 doubles, 1 triple, 5 Hrs. Opponents hitting .255 against him.

Virginia:

LHP Brandon Waddell: 4-5, 4.02 ERA, 103 innings pitched, 47 walks, 87 K’s. 19 doubles, five triples, four Homers. Opponents batting .278 against him.

Last outing for both:

Walker pitched a beauty against TCU last Friday night going 6.2 innings, giving up four hits, one earned with one walk and eight K’s. John Kilichowski finished it off for the Dores pitching 2.1 innings of one hit ball allowing no runs, with no walks and  out 2 K’s in a 7-1 Dores victory  that got us to the championship round.

Waddell threw five innings against Florida last Saturday night, giving up six hits, four earned with three walks and three K’s. Josh Sborz finished it off with four innings of three hit, no run ball and got the win as the Cavaliers defeated the Gators, 5-4, to make it to the championship series with us.

Intangibles:

Us: We have our pitching setup nicely with Walker, Kilichowski and Kyle if we need them. I would say all hans on deck. Carson could pitch, maybe even Pfeif.

Virginia: Waddell pitched nine innings against us in the second game last year of the championship series and allowed only one earned run in a UVA victory that sent it to a game three in which we won.

Who knows who else O’Connor will use. Nathan Kirby, their sometimes stud and 40th pick by the Mariners is available, and I’m not counting it out for O’Connor to go back to Sborz again if necessary.

Things we have to do:

Pfeif deserved a better fate last night. He pitched his heart out. If we could have hit at all and played defense, we could have closed it out with the way Phil pitched and how Ben relieved him. But we struggled in the field and with the bats with runners in scoring position. When we’ve struggled in games this year it’s been with hitting with runners in scoring position. Zander is usually a sure handed first baseman, but he had issues last night.

Keys to victory:

Simple: Pitch, defend and hit in the clutch. If we do that we’ll win the national championship.