The No.3 Dores (Baseball America) blasted No.12 Louisville 10-2 on Tuesday Night at Louisville. We pounded out 14 hits. Redshirt freshman Zander Weil and sophomore Vinnie Conde both went deep. Wiel hit a two-run shot, his third in three games, and Vinnie had a three-run shot. Freshman Walker Buehler went 5.1 innings giving up four hits, one run wtih two walks and no strikeouts. Not worried about the lack of strikeouts by Walker. He can bring it in the mid-90’s. He’ll strike out his fair share of hitters. Phillip Pfeifer, Carson Fulmer and Jared Miller finished it off on the mound for the Dores, who moved to 36-6 on the season.We are 16-2 in the conference and host Mississippi State this weekend for a three-game set. Friday Night’s game is at 6:30 PM CT, Saturday’s game is @ noon CT and will be televised by CSS, and Sunday’s game is at 1 PM CT. Kevin Ziomekwill be on the hill Friday Night, Tyler Beede on Saturday and most likely, T.J. Pecoraro on Sunday. Would like to see our three starters have good weekends.
State is 33-1o overall. They lost two of three to LSU in Starkville in March, lost two of three to Kentucky in Lexington, lost two of three to Arkansas in Fayetteville. took two of three from Florida in Starkville, beat Ole Miss on April 9, 5-1, swept A&M at College Station, April 12-14, and took two of three from Auburn at State last weekend. They defeated Memphis Tuesday, 12-1. State is ranked No.16 by Baseball America. Right fielder Hunter Renfroe is knocking the cover off the ball hitting .410 with 14 homers and 45 RBIs. State hitting .298 as a team. Ross Mitchell is a long reliever out of the bullpen who is 8-0 with an 0.97 ERA. Luis Pollorena is their Friday guy. He’s 6-1 with a 3.38 ERA. He has 24 walks and 41 Ks. Their closer is Jonathan Holder. Holder has 12 saves and a 1.61 ERA. He has walked only seven and K’d 52.
Tony Kemp is leading us in hitting @ .387. Tony has stolen 22 bases in 31 attempts. He has 63 hits in 42 games. Playing fantastic second base also. Made a beautiful catch Tuesday Night going into foul territory and a beautiful snare of a line drive Sunday against Georgia. Just an amazing player. Connor Harrell’s catch in right center Tuesday Night was Willie Mays-like. It was beautiful. We’re playing awesome defense, found some good power with Zander Wiel, Connor (8 homers, 52 RBIs), Vinnie (six homers, 33 RBIs) Rhett Wiseman and Kyle Smith, who has been hurt ever since he collided with the wall a couple of weeks ago against Mizzou. But Kyle should be back, maybe this weekend. He suffered a bad cut on his chin (requiring something like 18 stitches), and suffered a concussion. So Kyle needs to take his time coming back. He’ll be OK soon though. Yaz can hit it out, Spence Navin can hit it out and Conrad Gregor can show some power at times. That was the one area I thought we might be not as strong at, but we’re fine in the power department. Tyler Beede is showing us why he was a first round draft pick out of high school in 2011. He is 10-0 with a 1.52 ERA. He has walked 38 and K’d 67. He’s been awesome the last two games. Zo just needs to keep improving and T.J. would give us a big lift on Sundays if he can return to his 2011 form. Certainly has it in him. Looks like we’re developing some fourth and fifth starters for the postseason as well.
Like where this team is at. I’m sure Corbs is pleased. Can’t rest on our laurels though. Have a tough test coming into town this weekend. Need to be honed in for State. Always have to be focused for SEC series.
Dave Price lost a tough one to the Yankees Tuesday Night. Pitched against Phil Hughes of the Yanks, who pitched very well. Dave went eight, giving up eight hits, three earned runs, with no walks and five K’s. Thought he battled hard. Went into the ninth tied at two, but gave up a single to Robinson Cano, maybe the best hitter in baseball, and Joe Maddon pulled him. Fernando Rodney couldn’t hold’em, but had what looked like a strike three called a ball which really hurt him and the team, and allowed the Yankees to score two on a single by Ichiro. Dave now 0-2 with a 5.52 ERA. I’m a little concerned about him, but he threw a lot of strikes Tuesday Night. Dave threw 99 pitches, 71 for strikes. Hopefully he’ll get it back in his next start Sunday against the ChiSox. Rays did take two out of three from Yanks in Tampa. Beat C.C. Sabathia on Monday Night, 5-1, and Andy Pettitte last night, 3-0. Rays now at 10-11 after a tough road trip that saw them go 2-7. Four back of BoSox, who are 14-7. Orioles are 12-9 and the Yankees are hanging tough without A Rod, Jeter, Tex and Granderson. They are 11-9. Rays hitting the road again for a pretty lengthy time starting tonight @ Chicago (White Sox) for a four-game set, followed by the KC Royals for three beginning next Tuesday and Colorado next weekend.
Mike Minor battled 20 degree weather in Denver and beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Tuesday. Mike went six, giving up five hits, three runs with two walks and five K’s. Mike moved to 3-1 overall with a 1.80 ERA. His only loss came to the Royals last week, 1-0. Man is Justin Upton crushing the ball. Eleven deep ones on the season. He’s leading the bigs. Braves playing great ball at 15-6 on the season though they lost to the Rockies in extras yesterday, 6-5. Rockies pretty good though. 14-7 on the season. Braves took two out of three from Rocks. Braves go to Detroit Tigers this weekend, starting tomorrow night, in what should be a classic series, then host the Nationals next week.