16 runs, 19 hits, those are the bats we’ve been accustomed to seeing this year. 16-8 over State. Would like to see T.J. pitching a little better at this point because we’ll need him in the regionals, but I know it’s in there. He’s got great stuff. His fastball velocity wasn’t great today, and his curve wasn’t biting that much, but he did some good things. Defense pretty solid. Vince had an error, but did a nice job with Tony of turning a couple of double plays. Conrad Gregor with three hits and three RBIs, Connor with three hits and two RBIs, Tony with two hits and three RBIs, freshman Zander Wiel with three hits and three RBIs and Big Z, freshman Xavier Turner, with three hits and three RBis. Excellent day at the plate. Jared Miller did a nice job in relief of T.J., going three innings and allowing only one run.
Got the Bayou Bengal Tigers in an herculean matchup tomorrow at 4:30 PM ET/ 3:30 CT on ESPN2. LHP Phillip Pfeifer will be on the hill for us. Pfeif has given us some good starts for the most part this season. He’s 3-0 with a 3.76 ERA in 55 innings pitched giving up 49 hits, walking 27 and striking out 42. Pfeif has been shaky at times, but we can win with him. LSU will go with Brent Bonvillain, a lefty, who is 2-0 with a 2.97 ERA in 36 1/3 innings. He ha given up 22 hits in the 36 and change innings, he’s walked 21 and struck out 30. In his last outing, he gave up two runs on one hit and walked a couple of batters in 2.1 innings of relief. LSU lost the game to Ole Miss 11-9. in the final regular season game of the season last Saturday. Bonvillain is a senior.
Should be a classic. Tony is now hitting .409. I’ve got a major thought on Tony that I will pass on tomorrow after the game. Don’t want to talk about this yet. He’s been sensational, we know that. Just need to keep up our solid hitting going and pitch and defend solidly to capture our second SEC tournament title (first one, 2007). Would catapult us into the NCAA tournament as the number one seed of the entire tournament. Important game for us.
Pedro Alvarez had a couple of blasts today. A two-run shot and a solo shot in leading the Pirates to a 5-2 victory over the Brewers. Pedro hit numbers 9 and 10 and has now driven in 25 runs with his 3 RBI day. His bat can dominate like it did in college at VU. He just needs to consistently do that. He has greatness in him. Pirates playing great ball at 30-19, a game and a half behind the Cards, who lost, and a game behind Cincy, who won tonight. Rays lost a heartbreaker to the Yanks. Leading 3-1 in the top of the ninth, 2012 All-world closer Fernando Rodney allowed two runs for the Yankees to tie it and send it into extras. Yankees won it 4-3 in 11. Rodney just not the same pitcher he was a year ago. He has to get better if the Rays want to contend. Rays now all square at 24-24. Yanks lead them by six. Yanks at 30-18, Bosox at 30-20, and Orioles are at 27-22. Rays need to get it together quickly or there going to be out of this thing by the end of June. Dave Price will miss at least one more start, maybe two. Should be back the first or second week of June. Rays really need to win tomorrow. Just not playing the way they were expected to be playing right now.
Mike Minor with another stellar performance tonight for the Braves. MIke went 7.1 innings, and gave up only three hits, no earned runs, with two walks and 10 K’s. Mike now 6-2 with a 2.47 ERA. Braves won 6-0 over Mets and are playing exceptionally well. Move to 30-18 on the season and have a 5.5 game lead on second place Washington (25-24). Mike fantastic this year. Watched some it while watching a few shows with my wife (Modern Family taped along with a Sat Night Live). Have to do that sometimes because I’ve watched a ton of baseball and basketball, so I need to be fair with the Mrs. Will finish watching Mike tomorrow morning. I know he struck out the side to open the game and was dominant throughout. He threw 113 pitches, 71 for strikes. He threw 71strikes to 42 balls; decent ratio. He looked pretty awesome to me. Excited for Mike and the Braves
Lastly in minor league baseball , Sam Selman (VU ’12) got a victory tonight to move to 3-3 on the season, going five innings, giving up two hits with one run, with two base on balls and six K’s. Sam’s ERA is 4.91 for the Wilmington Blue Rocks. The Blue Rocks moved to 24-24 and the team they beat Myrtle Beach is now 29-18. So nice outing for Sam. It was a makeup for an earlier rained out game and went only seven innings. Wilmington is a Class A Advanced team for the Kansas City Royals. I see Sam going to the major leagues in the next couple of years. I also see Sony Gray (’11, Sacramento River Cats) pitching for the Oakland A’s this season. I like Curt Casali (’12, Charlotte, Fl, Rays organization). Aaron Westlake (’11, Tigers organization), Jason Esposito (’11, Orioles organization) Anthony Gomez (’12, Marlins minors) to make it as well in the next couple of years. Antoan Richardson is now with the triple A Rochester club of the Minnesota Twins organization. Antoan needs to get a shot in center field at some point for the Twins. He’s hitting .267, but has been in the 280’s this season, and he plays excellent defense and can steal a lot of bases. He is 29, so he needs to get his shot pretty soon. There are plenty of other guys from VU out there in pro baseball who could get a shot in the next year or two. Will start keeping you posted on our minors guys some more starting this week.
Luke List didn’t make the cut at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Fort Worth this weekend. Shot 70-75. Still plying away. Luke plays a lot. Just needs to keep doing what he’s doing and it’ll turn around for him. Brandt playing next week at the Memorial in Dublin Oho, Jack Nicklaus’s tourney. Will be awesome to see Brandt back out there.
Finally, watched an awesome Western conference final game in the NBA tonight. San Antonio defeated Memphis, 104-93, in overtime. Thirty seven year old Tim Duncan is playing better than ever; at another level than most players left in the playoffs, and there are a lot of great ones. Tony Parker has been superb. I guess Parker decided to turn it on after a nice Memphis restaurant turned him away last night saying in a statement later that most patrons book reservations two weeks in advance and there are no exceptions. Then they finished the statement by saying they are ardent fans of their Memphis Grizzlies basketball team and Go Grizzlies. Tony Parker doesn’t need much motivation to go out and play well, but this didn’t help the Memphis cause.
I like the Spurs over the Pacers in six in the NBA finals. I see the Spurs hoisting their fifth NBA title trophy and fourth championship in 11 years. Now that’s all time great. Don’t see the Heat beating the Pacers. Pacers are fantastic and have a better work ethic than the Heat. Like the Pacers in six over the Heat. Sorry LeBron. Don’t think your team can beat this terrific young group from Indiana. San Antonio up 3-o over Memphis.