Our stud freshman Camden Kozeal had a mammoth week last week. (Photo courtesy of Wilson County Source).
Our great freshman designated hitter, Camden Kozeal, put up some tremendous numbers at the plate over the weekend as the Commodores swept all three games at the Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid Park in Houston, including an improbable and sensational 14-11 victory over then No.15 Texas on Sunday.
Our great freshman, who was honored as SEC freshman player of the week for last week, led the SEC with 14 hits, led the conference in RBI’s with 11, and also tied for the lead in doubles with 3.
The Dores won Friday over Louisiana, 7-4. Senior catcher Alan Espinal hit a clutch 3 run shot to secure the victory. Carter Holton pitched pretty solidly, going 5, giving up 4 hits, three earned, with a walk and 6 K’s. Carter is a strike thrower with terrific stuff and there were some soft hits that fell in against him. Feel great about our Friday Night guy going forward. Greyson Carter pitched three solid innings in relief of Holton. Greyson is hitting high 90’s on his fastball. As I said last Wednesday, if Carter can locate well, he’ll be a force. Freshman Miller Green came in for the ninth and finished the job with a hit, a run and a K. It got a little sketchy there at the end, but Miller closed the door for us. Like his stuff also.
On Saturday, we got a terrific start from our great junior Bryce Cunningham. Bryce, from Headland, Alabama, went 5.2, and gave up 4 hits, 1 earned, with 2 walks and 8 K’s in our 3-1 victory over Houston. Freshman Ethan McElvain gave us 1.1 and allowed a hit with 0 walks and 2 K’s. Like what we have in another one of our great freshmen. And there are several of them. Freshman Brennan Seiber finished it off with 2 innings of scoreless work with 0 walks and a K. Think Seiber is special.
Sunday was beyond spectacular. After looking really slim early, we made a charge in the last 4 innings with our bats. The Longhorns took an 11-3 lead into the bottom of the fifth as our superb junior pitcher, Devin Futrell, was knocked around hard. Not like Devin, but Texas was locked in at the plate. Devin was throwing strikes; he just had a tough day. Still like Futrell a lot going forward. That’ll happen. Andrew Dutkanych IV came in and was hit hard, too. So we found ourselves in a serious hole. But then the bats came alive as we scored 2 in the bottom of the 5th, 2 in the sixth, 5 in the seventh and 2 in the eighth. Kozeal, Espinal and our outstanding shortstop, Jonathan Vastine, all homered. Kozeal also doubled and posted 3 Ribeyes. Another great veteran player for us, fifth year senior left fielder Troy LaNeve, had a huge day at the plate going 2 for 3 with 4 Ribeyes including a huge three run triple in the bottom of the seventh, which was the hit of the game along with Kozeal’s at bats. Junior Sawyer Hawks and junior lefty Ryan Ginther closed the door for us. Hawks pitched two scoreless innings with 2 hits, one walk and three K’s. And Ginther, who could be our closer going forward, went 2, gave up a hit, 0 runs with 0 walks and 2 K’s. So those guys finished strong for us, which we had to have. By the way, Camden Kozeal is from Omaha, Nebraska. Love having those tough Midwestern guys on our team. We’ve got a hard-nosed team of great competitors who are team first guys and first class people. Really like the makeup of this group. We’ve got a long way to go, but I like our chances in April, May and June. This team looks special. The SEC is tough, but we’re tough and ready for the challenge.
Kozeal is hitting .367 with 2 homers and 14 Ribeyes. Our awesome, versatile, now first basemen, for the time being, RJ Austin, is hitting .365 with a homer and 14 RBIs. Centerfielder Calvin Hewitt, who is stellar defensively, has gotten his opportunity and is hitting .355. Espinal, a superb defensive catcher, is also knocking the cover off the ball hitting .340 with 2 long ones and 12 Ribbies. I love our situation in the outfield with Hewitt in center, and a platoon of stud juniors Jacob Humphrey and Matthew Polk, who had a big day Saturday at the plate hitting a homer and a double with 2 huge RBIs. Matthew also made a terrific catch at the wall on a drive to right. Then we have LaNeve in left. Right now Jack Bulger, who was knocking the cover off the ball before he was injured, and fist baseman Chris Maldonado, are on the shelf. Hopefully they will be returning soon. Our team batting average is .327, our team ERA is 4.74, and our team fielding is .984. Good numbers for sure, particularly at the plate and on defense. Still need to tighten it up a little more defensively and get more consistent performances on the hill from our older guys. Our freshmen are doing well, but the older guys need to take the lead for us to have real success this season.
We have Eastern Michigan today at 4:30 PM @ the Hawk with SEC Network+ broadcasting. This weekend, Illinois State comes to Nashvegas for games Friday-Sunday with a 4:30 PM, a 4:30 PM and a 1 PM start respectively for those games. Next Tuesday, 3/12, we’ll play Indiana at home at 4:30 PM. Then we’ll open SEC play versus Auburn at the Hawk Friday-Sunday, March 15th-17th, with a 6 PM first pitch on Friday, a 2 PM first pitch Saturday and a 1 PM first pitch on Sunday. All those games coming up will be broadcast on SECN+, the app for the SEC Network. So huge week and a half ahead. Ready for the SEC. Ready for today. Weather is a little questionable today, but we still might get it in. It’ll be interesting to see who Corbs and pitching coach Scott Brown decide on as our starter today. Like what I’m seeing from our baseball team. We are now No.9 in the country as ranked by D1 Baseball.com. Wake is No.1, Arkansas is No.2, LSU is 3, Florida is 4, and TCU is 5. Tennessee is 8, we’re 9, Alabama is 15 and Auburn is 19.
Men’s Golf is almost done at the Cabo Collegiate on holes 16-18 in today’s final round and not our best this time around. We were the defending champion, but we are presently in fourth place at +1 and a shot back of Arkansas, which is even. We can catch Arkansas and finish third, but I’m surprised with this result. Just too much inconsistency from our key guys. One of our best players, Jackson Van Paris, did not play as he’s competing in an individual tournament, amateur or pro, not sure, but not on the PGA Tour. But we just didn’t have it this tournament. We need to get better if we want to achieve our goals, which are lofty; Final Four, win it all. That’s our standard every year, and we’re going to need to figure it out soon. Looks like we’ll finish in fourth at +1 for the tournament. We are three shots back of Arkansas and almost finished.
Our next tournament will be the Pauma Valley Invitational in Pauma Valley, California, in San Diego County close to San Diego. That’ll be Monday, 3/16 and Tuesday, 3/17. Need to get to work getting prepared for that and put this performance behind us. Need to do better.
Our great women’s basketball team won Sunday over Georgia, 72-55, to finish its season 22-8 overall and 9-7 in the SEC. Our awesome graduate guard, Jordyn Cambridge, scored her 1,000th career point on Sunday. Jordyn now has 1,006 for her illustrious career at Vanderbilt. Jordyn finished with 13 points. She is the only Commodore in program history to account for 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists and 300 steals. Wow, what a resume.
Junior guard Iyana Moore finished the afternoon with 28. So awesome effort from Coach Shea Ralph’s team. Coach Ralph has this team playing lights out as we matriculate into the SEC Tourney, which commences Wednesday. The tournament will be held at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C. We are the sixth seed and play the winner of Wednesday’s No.14 seed Missouri versus No.11 seed Florida on Thursday. Our game Thursday is scheduled for approximately 7:30 PM CT, or 25 minutes after the 5 PM CT game. It will be televised by the SEC Network.
South Carolina is the No.1 seed, LSU is No.2, Ole Miss is No.3 and Alabama is No,4. Tennessee is fifth. We are one of the last four in the NCAA Tournament according to Charlie Creme of ESPN. These committees sure follow Joe Lunardi’s bracket for the men, so I bet Creme’s bracket is highly credible for the women as well. We need to take care of business Thursday Night and take it from there. A win might secure us a spot in the NCAA’s, but we want to win this thing too.
Will keep you apprised in the next couple of days with a lot of good stuff coming up.
Will have more on football in the near future. Just need a good spring and then we welcome in some awesome true freshmen and excellent transfers in June. Our key players from last year’s team who are back want to keep on getting better and we’ve added have some strong early enrollees. Like the potential of this team. Game one is Saturday, August 31 versus Virginia Tech at FirstBank Stadium, Wow, what an opener. We’ll need to be locked in. Like Clark to have the guys ready.
Men’s basketball is just not working out.