The No. 13 Vanderbilt baseball team (D-1 Baseball Poll, the best in my opinion) had a really fine weekend series against No.25 Duke taking 2 out of 3 and missing by a couple of feet on Saturday of sweeping the series.

The big story was the hitting. The pitching and defense were solid, but our bats were going off against a solid Blue Devils’ pitching staff. 

We won 9-1 on Friday and Sunday, and lost 5-4 on Saturday on a play at the plate to end the game. Our freshman sensation right fielder Pat DeMarco tried to score from second in the bottom of the ninth on an Ethan Paul hit that was bobbled by the second baseman, but Pat was thrown out at the plate by a couple of feet. I liked Pat’s aggressiveness. Our players have always been aggressive running the bases and it can win a lot of games for you. So, no issue with Pat trying to tie the game. It was the third out, so we fell to Duke on Saturday, 5-4. 

But Pat sure made up for it with his hitting. He was 8 for 13 at the plate, .615, with 7 singles and a double. He was spectacular. Junior Stephen Scott was special himself going 6 for 12 in the series, .500, with 2 doubles, a homer and 3 Ribeyes. Stephen played some excellent catcher as well. He’s going to be very valuable to the team this season with his ability to catch and play in the outfield. Really liked Stephen’s play behind the plate. Junior shortstop Connor Kaiser hit .385, going 5 for 13, with 2 doubles and a Ribbie. Centerfielder Alonzo Jones hit .364 with 4 hits in 11 at bats. Jonesy was also 3 for 3 on stolen bases. Jonesy is a weapon for us. He played some good defense in the outfield as well. He’s got world class speed and he’s a phenomenal athlete. Freshman catcher and DH Philip Clarke hit .308 with 4 hits in 13 ABs. Freshman third sacker Jayson Gonzales hit .273  and played some terrific defense. It was a spectacular hitting performance.

But that’s not to discount the pitching and defense. It was pretty darn solid as well. Drake Fellows, Jackson Gillis and Aaron Brown combined to get the job done Friday Night. I’m a fan of all 3, but I’m a huge fan of Jackson. He’s a lefty who can bring it in the mid 90’s and hit upper 90’s some, too. Jackson could very well be in our weekend rotation and could even be our Friday Night starter if he keeps pitching like he did on Friday. Jackson went 3.2, gave up just 1 hit, with 1 walk and 4 K’s. I noticed Jackson last year in the Clemson regional, which we won to go the Corvallis (Oregon) Super Regional, and Jackson was terrific. Really like what Jackson can do for us this season. We got super work out of junior Chandler Day and freshman Mason Hickman, who both pitched extremely well on Sunday. Chandler started and went 4, giving up 3 hits, 1 run, with 2 walks and 6 K’s. Mason was outstanding out of the pen, going 5, giving up only 3 hits, with 2 walks and 7 K’s. Mason has a lively fastball that looks like it hits 95 or so and his change up is stellar as well. Saturday Night we got good work out of  Zach King, who went 4, gave up 4 hits, 2 earned with 0 walks and 4 K’s. Tyler Brown and Patrick Raby came in, in relief, and Rabes struggled a little, but he’s battling a slight injury. Rabes will be back. Trust him 100%. 

On defense, we fielded at a .991 clip which is spectacular and wins a lot of games as well. We only committed 1 error the entire weekend, and made play after play in the field. Connor and Ethan look outstanding at short and 2nd respectively, Stephen Scott looks very good behind the dish, and Jayson Gonzalez will be stellar at 3rd. Outfield gave us solid work, and Julian Infante played well at first, though he had some struggles at the plate. That’ll happen. He’s just gotta work his way out of it. As good of a hitter as Julian is, I expect he will. 

So overall, an exceptional weekend for the team. Up next is Presbyterian tomorrow, Tuesday, at 4 PM CT on SEC Network+ on the computer. Will keep you posted on our team the entire season. We’re going to like this group. 

Men’s Golf

Our No.3 Men’s golf team (Golfweek rankings, the best) went down to Gainesville and basically lapped the field shooting -18 and defeating No.6 Florida by 9 shots, to capture the Suntrust Gator Invitational. No. 25 South Florida was third at -5 and No. 32 North Florida was 4th at -2. No. 20 Arkansas finished +10 for the tournament, and No. 27 Missouri finished +6. There were 16 teams that competed, so superb performance by our guys.

Yesterday, sophomore “Johnny Clutch” Augenstein shot a 64, -6,  and junior Will Gordon shot 66, -4. Senior Theo Humphrey shot even par 70, as did junior Patrick Martin. For the weekend, Will shot 66, 72, 66, to tie for 4th along with Clutch, who went 69, 71, 64. Hayden Buckley of Missouri won the individual tourney at -8. Gordon and Clutch were -6 for the weekend. Theo  shot -4 for the weekend, 68, 68, 70, and Patrick shot 71, 67, 70 for a -2 finish for the tourney. The top 4 scores are taken in all college tournaments. All in all, a sensational performance by our talented group. Really excited about what this group of young studs can accomplish this season. Next up is the Querencia Cabo Collegiate in Los Cabos, Mexico, March 4th. It’s a 16 team field with No.1 Oklahoma State playing along with us and some other talented teams in Georgia, Florida State, No.13  Stanford, No. 5 Baylor, and No.20 Arkansas. So excellent field for Coach Scott Limbaugh to get an even better gauge on his group. 

Jeff Roberson

J Robe was named SEC Player of the Week today after averaging 24 points and 9 rebounds last week in victories over Mississippi State and Florida. He was 12 for 12 from the charity stripe against Florida on Saturday and played an exceptional game. Like where JRobe, Riley, Joe Toye, Saben Lee and the guys are right now. Saben had 6 key rebounds Saturday against Florida in our 71-68 victory, which was a massive victory for our team and also for recruiting as we had 5 star signee Darius Garland and high 4 star signee Aaron Nesmith in attendance along with our top guy left, the No.6 player in the country, 5 star Romeo Langford. According to reports, Romeo had an excellent time on Saturday and saw an electrically exciting performance by our team. Darius was recruiting him hard as was Aaron. Wow, we get Romeo to go along with No. 14 Darius, No.7 Simisola Shittu and No. 68 Aaron, that’ll be a top 3 recruiting class and lead to some major excitement for 2018-19 with the players we have returning, the freshmen, and a couple of talented big men transfers who are sitting out this season. And I want this group, particularly, JRobe and Riley, who has also been playing superb basketball for us, to go out as a tournament team. NCAA that is. If you get there a deep run is possible. The way we’re playing we have a shot to finish strong and have excellent momentum heading into the SEC Tournament in St. Louis, March 7-11.

Next up we are at the LSU Bengal Tigers tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 8 PM CT on the SEC Network. LSU just defeated a good Missouri team at home on Saturday, 64-63. LSU is 15-11 overall and 6-8 in the conference. We are now 5-9 and 11-16. Just gotta put some W’s back to back now. LSU freshman point guard Tremont Waters is a superb player averaging 14.7 ppg and 5.8 assists. We’ll put Saben and Riley on him and I like our chances.

Just a tremendous week for the team last week with a last second shot by Riley to defeat State, 81-80, and 2 hugely clutch free throws by Joe Toye, part of a 22-for-24 free throw shooting day for the team, 92%, which led to a massive victory over the Gators. Like where we are very much. Some incredible coaching by Bryce and the staff as well.

On Wednesday, I’ll have a recap of the LSU and Presbyterian games.

Then, on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, I’ll have my conversation with stellar VU women’s tennis coach Geoff McDonald about his team. Our women are ranked 3rd in the country by the ITA (InterCollegiate Tennis Association)  and already have major victories over then No.1 Stanford (now No.6), and then top 5 Florida, which is now ranked 18th. Also, we beat a top 10 Baylor team when we played them. We lost to No.2 Pepperdine at the National Indoors, but had defeated Wake Forest and Florida prior to that in the Indoors. We’ve got a super team led by spectacular senior Astra Sharma and a talented group of underclass women. I’ll have my talk with Geoff later this week.

 I’ll also have my conversation with Men’s Golf Coach Scott Limbaugh later in the week.

Some amazing stuff going on at West End.