Patrick Reilly pitched pretty brilliantly last night in relief of Sam Hliboki, who gave us four solid innings in our 6-4 victory over Auburn at the Hoover Met that finished up pretty late in the early Thursday AM.

Tremendous victory for the guys. Sam went 4, gave up 3 hits, two runs, both solo shots by Auburn, with 2 walks and 3 K’s. That Auburn can blast some long ones, so having nobody on base when they launched their shots against Hliboki was big. Patrick came in and pitched 5 superb innings with just one hiccup. Reilly allowed 2 hits, 2 runs, a 2 run shot in the 9th, with a walk and 8 K’s. Patrick was on fire with his 96-98 MPH heat, and his curve and slider were extremely effective. We hit enough, though we still need to hit it better with runners in scoring position. Davis Diaz and Jonathan Vastine had a couple of big run scoring singles for us. Davis drove in two runs with 2 singles. Enrique didn’t get a hit, but affected the game with 2 stolen bases, two runs scored and a nice catch in central field, in which he covered a massive amount of territory to track a liner down for the third out of the second inning. Just need RJ Schreck, Parker Noland, Jack Bulger and RJ Austin to be the run drivers in guys that they are. I can see them doing that tonight. I love what Coach Corbin has done inserting Troy LaNeve into the DH spot. Troy gives us good hitting and definitely the long ball threat.

Florida tonight at 9 ET/8 CT. Hunter Owen will get the ball tonight, which is tremendous. Hunter is back after spending time on the IL with some shoulder tightness. He’s a stud and we’ll need him to be against the rival Gators. Hunter is 4-0 with a 3.16 ERA. In 57 innings pitched, he has posted 16 walks and 67 K’s. He’s allowed 7 doubles, 0 triples and 6 home runs. Florida is a home run hitting team as they cranked a three run shot in the bottom of the 11th to defeat Alabama, 7-6. Alabama had scored three runs in the top of the 11th to go up, 6-3, and looked to be in good shape. But the Gators were not going to be denied.

For Florida, it’ll be junior right hander Brandon Sproat, who is 7-3, 4.85, 35/100, 11 homers given up.

Glad we have Hunter on the hill. We’ve got a rested bullpen also with Reilly eating up 5 innings last night, so that’s huge. The bullpen has really picked it up lately. We’ll have Ryan Ginther and Maldo late if needed. In between, we have Bryce Cunningham, Greyson Carter, David Horn, Grayson Moore, and Thomas Schultz. If Thomas could just find the rhythm he had last season, he can really help us.

Hopefully, we can have Carter Holton for the Regional, or, possibly, this weekend for a few innings, if possible, though not likely.

Men’s Golf, Gordon Sargent

Our No.1 ranked Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team (Golfstat and Golfweek rankings) will tee it up tomorrow at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, AZ for the NCAA Championships.

We are the top seed in the Championship and tee off alongside North Carolina and Illinois on the 7,289 yard Par-70 course. We go off the 10th tee on Friday at 1:30 PM CT as we begin our journey in hopes of winning the our first national championship in program history. Saturday, we tee off at 8:10 AM CT. Sunday’s tee time is to be determined.

Friday through Sunday is 54 holes of stroke play amongst the top 30 teams that qualified with the top 15 teams after Sunday’s round qualifying for Monday’s final stroke play round. After Monday’s round, the top 8 teams will qualify for the Match Play. The quarterfinals and the semifinals will be held Tuesday, 5/30, and the championship match is Wednesday, 5/31. Monday’s 4th round stroke play will be on the Golf Channel at 5 PM ET/4 CT and will run till 8. Tuesday’s quarters will run on the Golf Channel from 11 AM-1:30 PM CT, and the semis are from 4-8 PM CT. The Championship match will be broadcast from 4-8 PM CT on Wednesday, 5/31.

So, awesome opportunity for the team. Gordon Sargent is a finalist for the Nicklaus Award, another one of the most prestigious awards in college golf along with the Haskins Award and the Ben Hogan Award, which Gordon is also in contention for. Gordon is superb, so he’s highly deserving of one if not all those awards. He’s the defending individual national champion and has posted a stellar 2023 season with several individual victories. We just need him, William Moll, Cole Sherwood, Matthew Riedel and Reid Davenport to be clutch in the NCAA Championships. We certainly have the material to excel this weekend and next week at Grayhawk. Just need to lock in.

Will be in touch. Anchor Down.