With the tragedy in Nashville this week, I know there is a lot of healing going on in the city. I hope this column can bring a little optimism back to people who have been affected by the devastating actions of a confused young woman.

I do want to commend our baseball team for their stellar play so far this season. So, if you’d rather not read about this, I understand. But I hope this can give some positive news for VU fans and the city of Nashville. Many prayers go out to the victims, their families and so many others affected by this senseless tragedy.

Our team did give all the proceeds of Tuesday Night’s game to Covenant School and the families that were devastated by this act of terror.

Our guys are playing really well right now. And this could be like a “Boston Strong” team as the Red Sox were after the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013, when the Sox won the World Series that season. Maybe our team can give us optimism and strength and make this season a “Nashville Strong” season.

Corbs and his team are sure getting the job done right now on behalf of their city.

The team keeps playing tremendous baseball after sweeping Mississippi State last weekend and then defeating Lipscomb on Tuesday Night at Hawkins Field, 11-1. We won the 3 game weekend series over MS. State, 26-3, Friday, 18-5, Saturday and 11-7, on Sunday. So, superb hitting by the guys.

Our great senior first baseman, Parker Noland, was named Co-SEC player of the week. Parker hit two grand slams in one game on Friday Night and drove in 11 runs that game. His slugging percentage was 1.200 for the weekend, which is through the roof good. Davis Diaz had a really good weekend as well. Most all of our hitters did. And we got solid starting pitching from Carter Holton, Hunter Owen and Devin Futrell, and stellar relief from Sam Hliboki and the great Nick Maldonado. Nick’s younger brother, Chris, is knocking the cover off the ball, too. I’ll go over our statistics now. After last weekend, we were leading the SEC in batting average since the beginning of conference play. We are hitting .366 with 19 homers in the conference, which leads the conference in both categories. I love this group of terrific hitters. Corbs was fired up about this team before the season started, and I can see why. Here are the stats through the Lipscomb game.

We are 20-5 overall and 6-0 in the SEC. We are ranked 4th by D1 Baseball and Baseball America. D1 has LSU No.1, Wake Forest No.2, Florida No.3, and we’re at No.4. Arkansas is 6, South Carolina is 9, Tennessee is 10, and Kentucky is 18. And every other team in the conference is certainly capable. Alabama and Auburn are good teams, Missouri is a good team, and A&M and Ole Miss are going to wake up at some point and start playing good baseball. There is too much talent at those two places. Baseball America is similar in its rankings and has us at No.4.

Parker was selected co-SEC Player of the week along with Dylan Crews of LSU, who is leading the country in hitting at .542, and Jac Caglianone of Florida.

As a team, we are batting .284. We’ve really come on at the plate. Our pitching team ERA is 3.28 and our fielding percentage is .982. Chris Maldonado leads us in hitting at .351. Little brother has 9 doubles, 3 long ones and 13 Ribeyes. Our great right fielder, RJ Schreck, is hitting .337 with 7 homers and 27 Ribbies. Left fielder Matthew Polk is hitting .302 with 3 homers and 16 Ribbies. Third baseman Davis Diaz, who’s been on fire lately, is hitting .301 with 5 homers and 23 RBIs. Super frosh RJ Austin, our second baseman, is hitting .291 with 3 homers and 19 Ribbies. Our great junior centerfielder, Enrique Bradfield, is now up to .280 with 3 homers and 18 RBIs. And Enrique has swiped 18 bags in 22 attempts. He’s a hoss on the base paths and at the plate and one of our key leaders. Noland is hitting .278 with 5 homers and 24 Ribbies. And shortstop Jonathan Vastine, who’s playing stellar defense along with the the rest of our position players, is hitting .274 with 3 homers and 19 Ribbies. Jack Bulger is doing a superb job behind the plate and hitting .250 with 3 homers and 17 RBIs. I expect us to get more power numbers out of Jack coming up, along with run production numbers. Alan Espinal always does something good when he comes in at catcher. He blasted one over the Green Monster in left Tuesday Night. It looked like a 400+ feet shot, for a 2 run homer, his fourth of the season. We’re in good hands at catcher.

Our pitchers are also excelling, which Corbs loves along with the defense. Holton is 3-0, 2.59 ERA, Owen is 3-0, 2.78 ERA, and Futrell is 4-1, 3.55 ERA. Hliboki keeps getting better and better and setting up Maldonado, who’s lock down with 3 saves and 0.00 ERA with 4 walks and 17 K’s. Bryce Cunningham has been good most of the season, but struggled Sunday in Starkville. Need the big fella (6’5”, 240) to get back to his usual form. I expect him to. We’re getting good work from sophomore Greyson Carter (6’4”, 241) as well. Greyson and Bryce bring it 95+. Greyson gave us 5 innings Tuesday Night allowing only 2 hits, a run, with 2 walks and 5 K’s. If he can keep his control, he’ll be a force. Greyson is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA with 11 walks and 14 K’s. Would like to see that walk number stay at around 11 for a while. He certainly has the velo and stuff.

The defense has been superb. With Corbs moving Austin to second, Vastine to short and Diaz to third, our infield has been stellar. And our outfield of Polk in left, Bradfield in center and Shreck in right is as good as any in the country, both defensively and offensively.

So, love what Corbs’ 2023 team is doing. Pitching Coach Scott Brown and hitting coach Mike Baxter deserve a lot of credit as well. They have their charges cookin’.

Georgia comes to Hawkins Field for a weekend set starting Friday and continuing through Sunday. Friday’s game is at 4:30 PM CT, Saturday is 2 PM CT, and Sunday’s finale is at 1 PM CT. All three games will be broadcast by SEC Network+. Georgia is led by first baseman Charlie Condon, who is hitting .472, which is fourth in the country, and second in the SEC to Crews of LSU. Condon has hit 9 homers and driven in 36. Connor Tate, an outfielder, hits .463 with 7 homers and 24 RBIs. They hit .323 as a team, so our pitching and defense will be challenged. They have a 5.82 team ERA and field at .976 percent. They are 15-10 overall and 1-5 in the SEC East. Our team and South Carolina lead the SEC East at 6-0. SC is 24-2 overall and we’re 20-5. Kentucky is 5-1 and 22-3. Florida is also 5-1 and 22-4 overall. UT is 3-3 and 20-5, and Mizzou is 3-3 and 19-6. And Georgia rounds out the East. In the West, LSU and Arkansas are 4-2. LSU is 22-3 overall, and Ark is 21-4. Bama (2-4, 20-6), Auburn (2-4, 17-7-1), A&M (1-5, 15-10) in that order are next. And Ole Miss (0-6, 15-9) and Miss State (0-6, 15-11) are at the bottom of the West. What has happened to the Mississippi schools? These are the last two national champions; State in 2021 and Ole Miss in 2022. Success can be fleeting sometimes.

So, another challenging weekend for our team. Just need to keep the momentum going. Holton, Owen and Futrell need to be good. Our lefty trio has been stellar this season, and we need that to continue this weekend. Need our middle relief to step it up, so we can get to Maldonado with a lead and let him close it out. Bats need to keep on cookin and defense needs to stay sharp. Should be a fun weekend. Hoping for a stellar result. Will keep you apprised.

Men’s Basketball

Basketball is leaking a little bit as we have lost 4 guys to the transfer portal, Jordan Wright, Trey Thomas, Noah Shelby and Malik Dia have all entered the portal. And Tyrin Lawrence is going to try out for the NBA Draft, but could very well return as he’s left the option open to return to VU. We’ll have point guard Ezra Manjon back along with point Paul Lewis, so we’ll be solid there. Hopefully, Tyrin. Center Quinton Millora-Brown is coming back, so that’s a boost. Center Lee Dort may return. Would love to see Lee come back. And Colin Smith will be back, which is huge. I expect Colin to be a tremendous player for us next season, along with the other returning guys. We’ll have to add to this group with our freshmen class and with some transfers.

Also, some excellent news. Stack was awarded the Ben Jobe Award given to the national minority coach of the year. Great stuff for Stack. The Award is determined by a 10-member voting committee which consists of current and former head coaches, as well as two senior staff members of collegeinsider.com. A well deserved award for the Man.

We’ve got 92, 3 star combo guard Isaiah West from Madison Tenn coming in. Heard super things about Isaiah. Also, 6’9, 220, 90, 3 star center Carter Lang from Charlottesville, VA is coming. And 6’7”, 195, 88, 3 star power forward JaQualon Roberts from Bloomington, Indiana is also coming in for ‘23-’24. I like these three freshmen, and Stack has a commitment from 2024 point guard Karris Bilal from Atlanta. So, off to a good start there.

A lot to be excited about in bball as well. I like out team next year. Hopefully, Lee Dort will stay. We’ve got a chance to be playing in the NCAA tourney next March. That’s where we belong.

Men’s Golf

After a tough tourney last week at the Linger Longer Invitational in Reynolds Plantation, GA. in which we finished third, we are still No.1 in the country by the Golfstat and Golfweek national rankings. Gordon Sargent is also ranked the No.1 player in the country by Golfstat and Golfweek. Freshman Wells Williams is 7th, Matthew Riedel is 28th and Cole Sherwood is 29th in the Golfstat rankings.

And Gordon is playing in the Masters next week, which is tremendous. I’ll keep you posted on how our stud sophomore is doing at Augusta National.

Meanwhile, we have another competition as the Calusa Cup in Naples, FL. that will take place this Sunday, April 2nd and continue through Tuesday April 4th. We’re competing with No.2 Texas Tech, No. 3 North Carolina, No.5 Arizona State, Georgia, Wake Forest, Iowa, which is hosting, and Purdue in a nine team field.

Need to get our momentum back at Calusa Pines Golf Club in Naples. After that, we’ll host the Mason Rudolph Championship on our home course, the Vanderbilt Legends Club, the South Course. That’s in Franklin. That’ll be Monday, April 10th through Wednesday, April 12th. Then, on April 19th, the SEC Championships will commence at St. Simons Island, Georgia, the Sea Island Golf Club, Seaside Course. April 19th is a Wednesday and it climaxes on Sunday, April 23rd. It’s three days of stroke play with the top 8 teams from stroke play after Friday competing in match play Saturday and Sunday. So, should be outstanding.

So, this is a tremendously important tournament for our team this coming Sunday as we prepare for postseason play and try to win a tournament. That’s the goal at this point, winning a tournament and getting our momentum back. Feel great about our team still and what Coach Limbaugh and assistant Gator Todd are doing.

Football

The Football Spring game, the Black and Gold Game, will be a week from Saturday, April 8th, at 5 PM CT at the Vanderbilt Soccer and Lacrosse Complex. SEC Network+ will broadcast the game. As you know, FirstBank Stadium is being renovated and will be ready for our opener versus Hawaii on Saturday, August 26th.

Will have a lot more on football after the spring contest.

I’m excited about what Clark can do in year 3 with some excellent talent on both sides of the ball. Expecting big things from quarterback AJ Swann, now a sophomore. And senior QB Ken Seals has looked excellent in the spring. The wide receiver room is talented, and running back has good speed. Just need some more physicality at that position,. But I think we can get that from Patrick Smith, Chase Gillespie and the staff is high on freshman Sedrick Alexander, who is an early enrollee. We have two more frosh coming in this summer, who have size. O line will be solid under stellar line coach AJ Blazek. And I like what Clark and DC Nick Howell can do with our talent on defense. More coming up in the near future.

God Bless and Take care.