Enrique Bradfield Jr. hit a 3 run shot in the top of the 11th to lead our 24th ranked Vanderbilt Commodores Baseball team to a 9-6 victory over No.4 Arkansas before 11,772 fans last night at Baum Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.
With the victory, we move to 33-15 overall and 13-12 in the SEC and took over 2nd place with Georgia losing its first 2 games of its series @Tennessee the SEC East Standings. Their series finale has started and is 0-0 in top 1.
Bradfield Jr. was a machine for us last night and got great help from Parker Noland and Thomas Schultz. Enrique was 3 for 5 with a homer, a double and 4 Ribeyes including his 3 run shot that hit the right field foul pole in the top of the 11th after Javy Vaz walked and Parker Noland, who is also knocking the cover off the ball, doubled off the wall in left central. I thought Parker’s shot would be out.
Enrique handled a lot for us last night. He made a diving, beautiful catch in shallow central which thwarted an Arkansas rally in the bottom of the 4th and stole 2 bases and is now 36-of-36 for the season. He’s making a strong case for All American honors and a Golden Spikes Award given to the nation’s best player. Enrique is an absolute stud.
Noland was 2 for 4 with a 2 run shot in the top of the second to left going the opposite way as he’s a left handed hitter, and his 2 run double in the 11th. Thomas Schultz was awesome once again shutting the door for our team as he pitched 3 innings of no hit ball with 2 walks and 2 K’s. Thomas is now 4-1 with a 1.38 ERA. He’s been terrific.
What else can you say about Bradfield Jr. Just a magnificent baseball player. Corbs always looks for those aggressive game changing players when he recruits and he has one in our sophomore. Wow, I’m glad he’s on our team. Terrific young person, too, like all of our guys.
Junior Right hander Chris McElvain on hill tonight for us. Chris is 5-3 with a 3.48 ERA. He’ll face Freshman left hander Hagen Smith, who is 6-2 with a 3.79 ERA.
Game time is 6:30 CT on SEC Network+
Men’s Golf
Coach Scott Limbaugh was named SEC Coach of the year, Freshman Gordon Sargent was named SEC Freshman of the year, Sargent and Cole Sherwood were named first team All SEC and senior Reid Davenport was named second team All SEC. Awesome honors for such deserving people. Proud for Coach and the guys.
Palm Beach Gardens Regionals start this Monday in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. on the PGA National Resort Course. Our No.3 ranked Commodores are the No.1 seed. Big week for the guys. I know they’re pumped as we all are for them. Come on guys, let’s get it done again like we have been all year. Coach Limbaugh wants our guys to be themselves, focus and have fun playing golf and we should be pleased with our results. It’s a 14 team regional with the top 5 teams advancing after 3 rounds, 54 holes of golf to the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona May 27th-31st, a Friday through a Wednesday. Need to take care of business on day one of this Regional, that’s the first order of business.
Women’s Tennis
Our 30th ranked women’s tennis team plays at No.7 Texas A&M today in the Sweet 16 at 2 PM CT. The match can be streamed on vucommodores.com Coach Aleke Tsoubanos and her team has been masterful so far in the NCAA’s. This is a major hurdle, but one we can clear with great focus and intensity. I know the Women will be ready.
Have a super Saturday and Anchor Down.