Patrick Raby tosses a Rembrandt against Georgia (Photo courtesy of VandiaMania.com and Powers14.com)
Patrick Raby pitched a gem last night in Athens as the sophomore threw a complete game, going 9, giving up 8 hits, just 1 run, issuing only 1 walk and striking out 4 in an 8-1 Commodores victory over the Georgia Bulldogs.
With the victory, the Dores move to 8-8 in the SEC and 24-15 overall. Georgia fell to 4-12 in the conference and 15-24 overall.
Patrick, who moved to 6-3 on the season with a 2.53 ERA, threw 102 pitches with 69 for strikes against 33 balls, a better than 2:1 strike:ball ratio, always a goal for a starting pitcher. Patrick was accurate, his fastballs were hitting 91-92, his breaking ball was very effective, and his off speed stuff was outstanding. His fastball and curve were really outstanding. Just an overall superb performance from the Knoxville, TN native.
And our hitters played some long ball with Georgia pitching. Left fielder Stephen Scott started out our scoring with a 2 run blast over the right field wall in the top of the fourth. That was Stephen’s 2nd homer of the season to go along with 8 Ribeyes. Stephen is hitting .260. He’s got a really good bat, so I expect him to start hitting for some really good average. Will Toffey added a 3 run double in the top of the 5th, hitting a ball to deep right field that the Bulldogs’ right fielder lost in the lights. It was a well hit ball though. Will is now hitting .340 with 5 homers and 40 Ribbies. Then Reed Hayes came through again with an RBI single driving in Toffey. Reed is hitting .326 with no homers but 27 RBIs. Jeren Kendall added his 12th home run of the season in the 7th, and Julian Infante hit a towering blast in the ninth, Julian’s 9th of the season. Jeren is now hitting .311 with 12 homers and 32 RBis, while Julian leads the team in hitting at .348 with 9 homers and 36 Ribbies.
Overall, it was a superb performance by the team. Committed a couple of errors, so we need to keep honing up our defense. Still like where we’re headed. We’ve got a doubleheader today due to some possible inclement weather tomorrow in Athens. Kyle Wright will take the hill for us against the Dawgs Chase Adkins at 1 PM CT/2 PM ET on SEC Network+. Kyle is 2-4 with a 3.98 ERA, but just came off a spectacular performance against Florida last Friday Night at home pitching a complete game, 3 hit shutout of the Gators. Kyle didn’t walk a batter and struckout 13. It was a masterpiece. Adkins, a right hander, is 4-4 with a 3.98 ERA. The nightcap is scheduled for 5 PM CT. I imagine freshman Drake Fellows will get the call for us, but not sure just yet. Will let you know when I find out.
Golf making a move in the 3rd round
The golf team has just taken the lead in the third round of the SEC tournament as we sit at -5 overall through 4-6 holes. Some guys started earlier. Florida and A&M are tied in 2nd place at -4, and LSU is 4th at -2. Update: LSU has just taken the lead at -5. We are now in 2nd at -4. We are at holes 5-7. A&M is 3rd at -3 and Florida is 4th at -2. Patrick Martin is -5 for the tournament in stroke play and is in second place overall trailing Florida’s Alejandro Tosti, who is at -8. The top 8 teams out of 3 rounds of stroke play at the Seaside course at Sea Island Golf Club qualify for the Match Play tomorrow. The quarterfinals are tomorrow and the semis are after that tomorrow with the championship match slated for Monday. Matthias Schwab who had a tough first 2 rounds is -2 today and +4 overall, so he’s starting to play like Matthias Schwab. Will keep you posted. Good stuff from Scott Limbaugh and the golf team. Need to keep battling to get over the top in the final round today. Will keep you posted.
Women’s tennis victorious over LSU in quarters in semis today vs. South Carolina
The No.2 girls defeated No.21 LSU, 4-2, in a tightly contested match at the Currey Tennis Center yesterday. No.11 Sydney Campbell, Emma Kurtz, and No.69 Fernanda Contreras all won their singles matches, and No.3 Astra Sharma and Emily Smith and no.73 Fernanda and Christina Rosca won their doubles match to give the Commodores their initial point. Geoff really stresses the doubles just like the singles. If you win the doubles matches, which are one set, you get 1 point. Teams play 3 doubles matches and then 6 singles matches, with the singles matches the best 2 out of 3 sets. Each singles victory counts for 1 point and the first team to 4 points wins the match. It’s pretty intense when you have a lot of tight singles matches going on and your team is trying to get to 4 points. Well done by Geoff and the girls. We play No. 11 South Carolina today in the semis at 1 PM CT at the Currey Center or a little bit afterwards depending on how the first semifinals match goes between No.1 Florida and No. 12 Auburn.
Will have a report later today or early tomorrow on how we fared in everything today. Monday or Tuesday of next week I’ll have football and basketball report along with baseball, golf and tennis.