Baseball knocks the cover off the ball against MTSU, huge series with the Cats, Men’s golf advances, Women’ tennis in Sweet 16

Vanderbilt baseball pounded out 15 hits and scored 21 times in a 21-4 victory over Middle Tennessee Tuesday Night at the Hawk. That sets up a tremendously important series starting tonight through Saturday against the 19th ranked Kentucky Wildcats.

We enter the Kentucky series at 28-24 and 13-14 in the SEC. Kentucky is 34-18 and also 13-14 in the conference. We are presently 9th in the conference and could climb as high as 3rd with a big weekend or as low as 12th if it doesn’t go as well. So major stuff going on at home starting tonight at 6:30 on SEC Network+. Game 2 is Friday Night @ 6:30 on SEC Network+, and game 3 is Saturday at 1 PM also on SEC Network+. All of those 3 games can be streamed on your computer, Ipad or phone.

Tonight, right hander Drake Fellows takes the mound for us. The sophomore is 5-4 with a 4.06 ERA, and has pitched quite well quite a lot this season. Drake will face Kentucky right hander Sean Hjelle (7-4, 3.86). Tomorrow night, right hander Patrick Raby takes the hill for us. Rabes had a stellar start against Tennessee last Saturday and comes in with a 4-5 record and a 3.43 ERA. Rabes looks like he’s back to his form from a year ago, which is super heading into this series and into the postseason which begins next Tuesday in Hoover, AL. at the SEC Tournament. Kentucky’s pitcher for Friday is to be determined at this point. Right hander Mason Hickman takes the mound for us Saturday afternoon. Mason is 7-2 with a 4.53 ERA. Mason has struggled as of late, but his arm talent and his mental makeup are certainly there to turn it around and give us a good performance on Saturday and going forward. Mason will face UK left hander Zach Thompson, who is 2-0 with a 4.56 ERA.

It’s so good to have J.J, Bleday back in right field. The sophomore was awesome in his return to the field last weekend against Tennessee after being out for 2 months with a oblique injury. J.J. not only crushed the ball all weekend, but he also threw out a runner at home on Saturday evening that kept the score 2-0, Tennessee early in the game. From there on, Rabes settled down and pitched masterfully in a 7-2 victory. We were victorious in game 1 last Friday Night, 7-6, but dropped Sunday’s matchup 8-7.  Really hit the ball well all weekend and kept it up this past Tuesday.

J.J. is such a valuable player for our team and we really missed him when he was out Awesome to have him back. Stephen Scott has been spectacular at the plate. He was 3 for 5 against Middle Tennessee with a homer, his 10th of the season and 4th in 4 games, a double, and 5 Ribeyes. Stephen is a really valuable player for us as well. Freshman 3rd baseman Jayson Gonzalez was struggling with his bat after coming back from injury, which always throws a player’s rhythm off, but was excellent at the plate Tuesday, going 3 for 6 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs. Bleday didn’t have a hit but walked 5 times and scored twice. Again his presence in the lineup just makes us a much better team. Connor Kaiser was 2 for 2 with 2 Ribbies, 2 runs scored, 2 walks and a double. Connor is not only hitting it well at .281, but also his defense at shortstop is beyond spectacular. In 186 chances, Connor has committed only 1 error. Wow. We are fielding at a .982 percentage this season which is the top mark in program history as of today. The program record was set in 2015 at .979. Dansby and all those guys.  

So we have an opportunity to do some really outstanding things this weekend. Our pitching needs to be good as the Wildcats can always hit. Freshman Tyler Brown got the start against MTSU, and though he had a rocky third, Tyler’s stuff was good and he’s an asset to the staff and the team. Maddux Conger came in for the 4th and pitched 3 innings of 3 hit ball with 0 runs, 1 walk and 4 K’s. Maddux and Tyler can bring it in the mid 90’s, so we’ll need their arms going forward. They both may be able to help us this weekend. Paxton Stover, Justin Wilson and A.J. Franklin pitched one inning apiece of shutout ball to close out the victory. Good to see the bullpen pitch so well. We’ll need them to be good this weekend and in the postseason.

Will have full reports throughout the weekend on each game. Tonight is the first one, and a huge game for us. Gotta try and take care of business at home starting tonight. Hopefully they’ll be a super crowd tonight at the Hawk.

Men’s Golf advances again to NCAA Championships

The No.2 ranked Vanderbilt men’s golf team advanced to the NCAA Championships with 29 other teams in a field of 30 by shooting 11 under par yesterday and finishing 3rd with a score of 22 under in the Kissimmee Regional hosted by Central Florida. The top 5 teams in each of the 6 regionals advanced to the NCAA Championships at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The championships will be held May 25-30th, next Friday through the following Tuesday with the first three rounds the top 15 teams that advance after the first 54 holes. Those 15 teams will play a final 18 hole stroke play competition on Monday with the 8 top teams matriculating into the match play to determine the Final Four and eventual national champion. The quarterfinals and the semifinals will take place Tuesday, May 29th, and the championship match will be Wednesday, May 30th. We have reached the Final Four 2 years in a row and have a superb team that has a shot to do well in Stillwater, where Oklahoma State is the host. Oklahoma is the defending national champion and in the championships as well. Oklahoma State, also in the championships, is No.1 ranked team in the country and we are No.2.

Florida won the regional shooting a blazing -42. Central Florida was next at -30. I will say, both teams are very familiar with the course, so both had an advantage. We came back from a tie for fifth place to capture third when Johnny “Clutch” Augenstein sank a birdie putt on No.9, his 18th hole, to catapult us over North Carolina into third place. North Carolina and Kent State rounded out the top 5. Teams from the other regions qualifying for the NCAA Championships are, from the Raleigh Regional, in order, Texas, Duke, NC State, Augusta University and Arizona State; from the Columbus, Ohio Regional, Oklahoma State, Illinois, UNLV, Northwestern and Texas Tech; from the Norman, Oklahoma Regional, Oklahoma, Brigham Young, North Florida, Arkansas and Auburn advanced; from the Stockton, California Regional, Kansas, Stanford, Iowa State, Alabama and Oregon advanced; and from the Bryan, Texas Regional, Texas A&M, Clemson, Baylor, UCLA and Kentucky advanced. Braden Thornberry from Ole Miss, who won the NCAA individual national championship last year, will compete as the top single player from the other teams that didn’t qualify to play in the Championships. Only one player makes it from that group and Thornberry is quite good. 

Sophomores Patrick Martin and Will Gordon were stellar yesterday. PMart shot a 5 under, 67 and Will shot a 4 under, 68. Theo Humphrey shot 1 under, 71, and Clutch shot 1 under, 71, so excellent, sharp performance by the team in a critical time with our championship hopes on the line. Confident in our ability to do well in the field of 30. Like Coach Scott Limbaugh always says, one day at a time, one round at a time. Very much looking forward to seeing the guys compete. Highly competitive NCAA Tournament with elite teams and players so there’s a tremendous challenge in front of us. The quarters, semis and championship matches will all be televised by the Golf Channel Tuesday and Wednesday, May 29th and 30th.

Women’s Tennis in Sweet 16 today

Our awesome women’s team plays No. 16 Miami today. We are the No.1 overall seed in the tournament and No.2 in the country, while Miami is the 16th seeded team in the Sweet 16 at Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Miami has a tremendous track record though. This is Miami’s 12th time in 13 years to reach the Sweet 16. Miami is 18-7 overall and finished 11-3 in the ACC. This is the Canes 23rd all time Sweet 16 appearance. We are 24-3 overall and won the SEC regular season and SEC Tournament titles for the second straight year finishing 12-1 in the conference and 13-0 at the Currey Tennis Center. Astra Sharma, Fernanda Contreras, Christina Rosca, Emma Kurtz, Amanda Meyer and Summer Dvorak have been spectacular this season and need to continue to be so today.

There will be a live stream of today’s match on the vucommodores.com women’s tennis page. Just go to the site and then the Vanderbilt Women’s tennis schedule page and you can stream it.  The match begins at 3 PM CT.

Will have a lot more coverage coming up on VU Confidential.