Our No.3 ranked Vanderbilt Baseball team was stellar in all phases of the game last night in a 3-0 victory over No.7 Oklahoma State before 3,802 VU partisans at the Hawk.

Junior Chris McElvain got the start and was superb. Chris went 4, gave up 4 hits, 0 runs with only 1 walk and 10 strikeouts. Chris was hitting 93 with his fastball, and his slider was vicious. He was dominant on the mound. Sophomore Patrick Reilly pitched 4 innings in relief, gave up 1 hit, 0 runs with 4 walks and 7 K’s. If Patrick can get his control down, he’s lights out. He was hitting upper 90’s on the gun. He has all the makings of a terrific pitcher. Just really pleasantly surprised with how McElvain pitched. He was awesome. Thomas Schultz came in and pitched a hitless, scoreless 9th, with 0 walks and a K. Schultz looked excellent as well. He picked up the save.

We had 6 hits, but there were some timely/clutch hits. Our great sophomore center fielder Enrique Bradfield, wow, glad to have him back, walked with one out in the bottom of the third, and advanced to second and third on wild pitches. Designated hitter Jack Bulger drove Bradfield home with a single to left central. Then our great now catcher Dom Keegan, he was at first last year, but came into VU as a catcher, came to the plate. Bulger moved to second on a wild pitch, and Dom doubled to deep right to drive him home. In the bottom of the fourth, another of our great seniors, second baseman Tate Kolwyck, homered over the Green Monster in left just inside the foul pole. Tate also doubled to right central in the bottom of the 6th. Our awesome left fielder Javy Vaz also had a double to left. Those were all the runs our staff needed as they struck out 18, 5 short of the record in a game set in April 21,1970 when we fanned 23 in a 16-0 victory over Chattanooga.

Defense was stellar as well. Our freshman first baseman Jonathan Vastine, whom Corbs is very high on, started a slick, 3-6-1 double play. He fielded a grounder, threw a strike to shortstop Carter Young who relayed it back to Reilly, who covered first perfectly.

So, excellent start for the team. Game 2 is today. Right hander Nick Maldonado gets the start for us. Not determined on Cowboys. Game time is 1 PM CT on SEC Network+. Will give you a recap tomorrow.

VU Basketball in key game today at 5 PM CT

Our bball team dropped a tough one @ No.2 Auburn on Wednesday Night, 94-80. We scrapped, and it was a highly competitive game for a good while, but Auburn is pretty awesome, especially at their place. We still battled. Scotty Pippen Jr. was superb, going for 29 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. I talked to a couple of Auburn guys, and they were highly complimentary of Scotty. He is phenomenal. Jordan wright added 15 and 6 rebounds. The combination of 6’9”, 220 Jabari Smith, 31 points, and 7’er Walker Kessler, 240 pounds, were too much to handle. Kessler poured in 22, 7 boards and 7 blocks. Those 2 look like top 5 to 7 draft picks in this year’s NBA draft. Some tough news was that our star guard, senior Rodney Chatman is out with a hamstring injury, and not expected back until at least the SEC Tournament. He’s such an important part of our team with his leadership, his toughness on defense and his prolific 3 point shooting. That was a factor not having him against Auburn. Trey Thomas and some other guys, Shane Dezone and Tyrin Lawrence will need to step up in Rodney’s absence. Hopeful will get Rodney back for the SEC Tourney. He’s such a major part of our team.

But we still have a ton to play for. We have 5 games left, need to win them all, and go probably to the finals in the SEC Tournament and maybe win it to make the NCAA Tournament. That’s a big ask, but this team still has the grit to do it. Scotty will do everything he can to get us into the Big Tourney. We are currently 13-12 overall, and 5-8 in the SEC. Five wins would put us at 18-12 and 10-8, which would be terrific. Maybe if we do that, a couple of victories in the SEC Tournament would get us in the Big Tourney. We’ve got it in us.

Gigantic matchup today versus Texas A&M @ Memorial, 5 PM CT on the SEC Network. We are tied with A&M at 5-8 in the conference standings, and if we’re victorious, we would be ahead of A&M, fifth from the bottom of the league, but ahead as far as not having to play in the first round of the tourney at Tampa March 9th, a Wednesday, with the bottom four teams in the regular season standings playing on Wednesday. That would be tremendous. It’s been a while since we haven’t played on a Wednesday Night and a first round bye is crucial. It gives you a shot to go the distance and not have to play 5 games. Four games is tough, but doable. Five games is extremely hard to win against this competition. So this is a major matchup in that regard. Will let you know on our bball team as well. The SEC Tournament is Wednesday, 3-9 through Sunday, March 13th at Amalie Arena in Tampa. Interesting place to hold it. First time in history.

Also, will have a write up on our 2022 football signee class coming up in the next week or two, hopefully this next week. Will try my best to get that out. I know they have been talked about a good bit, but will try to give you a more comprehensive look a this impressive class that Clark and his staff have assembled. Our national rank was 32 by 247 sports, and 33 by Rivals, which is excellent. There have been some changes on our staff. We have a new defensive coordinator, linebackers coach, defensive backs coach, and maybe one more. Will give you more intel on that as well. I like the new coaches. They seem very solid. It’s a real compliment to your program that other programs are going after your staff. Clark knows how to hire good people, so I feel good about the new hires. Will talk about the guys who are returning players on the team as well in a comprehensive football piece. More coming up.

Men’s Golf starts their spring season at The Prestige tournament on Monday, Feb. 21. The tournament runs through Wednesday, 2-23. Will keep you posted on that. Men’s Tennis is 6-0 and Women’s Tennis is 6-1, so good starts for both those programs. Will keep you apprised on those two teams that are excelling so far.

Have a super weekend and let’s get this done today at the Hawk and later this afternoon at Memorial.