It doesn’t get any better than this. Coach Scott Limbaugh’s Men’s Golf Team captured the SEC Championship yesterday in dramatic fashion at Sea Island’s Seaside Course.

After 3 days of stroke play Wednesday through Friday, we finished 6th and qualified for the Match Play as the top 8 teams matriculated to match play. And our guys came through in the clutch in match play.

First off, Cole Sherwood played well in the stroke play finishing fourth individually helping us reach the 8 team match play competition. In our quarterfinal match, we defeated Tennessee, 4-1, with Harrison Ott, Reid Davenport, Matthew Riedel and William Moll winning their respective matches. In the semis, we defeated Alabama, 4-1, with Sherwood, Davenport, Ott and Riedel winning for us. And in the championship match that was tremendously compelling. Cole won his match, 4&2, he was ahead by three holes, meaning he had won 3 more than the Arkansas player, and finished it off on No.16 by winning that hole, so he was 4 holes ahead with only 17 and 18 to play, so impossible for the Arkansas player to catch up. Reid won his match on No.18 to win 1 Up. We had been down 2-1 when Reid won his match, so awesome stuff from Reid and Cole.

So it came down to William, our sophomore from Houston. William has accomplished many things in amateur golf including winning the 2018 Jones Junior Amateur Championship and setting the scoring record right on the Seaside Course in Sea Island, so those were some good memories for the man. William was 2 up until the gritty Arkansas freshman, Manuel Lozada, birdied 16 from 7 feet to cut it to 1 up with 2 to play. Lozada hit his tee shot in the par 3 17th into the bunker and William hit a 6 iron to 40 feet. William calmly 2 putted and put the pressure on the Columbian, South American native. Lozado blasted out to 4 feet and calmly sank his putt to send the match to No.18. If William just tied the hole we win the SEC Championship.

On 18, Lozado blasted it down the middle and William coolly and confidently striped his down the middle as well. Both were sitting City Hall, right in the middle of the fairway. The drives were so close in distance that the official on the course had to flip a coin to see who would hit his approach first. William won the toss and hit it 20 feet away. Lozado hit his 6 feet from the hole. William made a good stroke on his birdie attempt just missing and going past the hole 3 feet. Lozado, who I was watching while Nick Maldanado had 2 outs in the top of the ninth inning for our baseball team up 7-4, eyed his putt. Nick struck out the batter for the victory, so had one more missed putt to claim the coveted SEC Championship. Lozado stroked it, and honestly, it looked center cut good. But it was a little hot and lipped out. William converted his par putt and we are SEC Champions for the second time under our phenomenal Coach Limbaugh. We also won it in 2017.

I want to personally thank our players and Coach Limbaugh and our awesome assistant Gator Todd. They are outstanding. Our 39 year old Coach teaches high character and integrity amongst his guys. They make excellent grades, and he’s just developed a winning culture at Vanderbilt. We’ll now make 7 consecutive NCAA tournaments under our 8 year coach, with last year being the only year we didn’t but nobody did because of COVID. Coach Limbaugh’s teams have now won 25 tournaments, we have reached 4 Elite Eights and 2 Final Fours, in 2017 and 2019. He’s coached 22 All-SEC selections and 4 SEC players of the Year in Hunter Stewart in 2015, Theo Humphrey in 2018, Will “Gordo” Gordon in 2019, and John “Clutch” Augenstein in 2020. I wouldn’t be surprised if William Moll joins that company. Reid Davenport makes a strong case as well.

It was a difficult year as we had to navigate through all the COVID protocols and we still are. Commissioner Greg Sankey said yesterday at the awards ceremony that there would be more testing and mask wearing coming up. It’s just a precautionary necessity at this time.

We played an incredibly difficult schedule against top level SEC competition and some other high level NCAA teams. We won the Vanderbilt Legends in late October of 2020, then we tied for first in the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate at Old Overton Golf Club in Birmingham in early November. We finished 7th out of 21 teams at the Gators Invitational on February. We finished 2nd out of 15 at the LSU Invitational. We finished tied 3rd out of 15 at the Tiger Invitational at Auburn. We finished 4th out of 14 at the Old Waverly Collegiate in West Point, MS. in late March. And we finished 4th out of 14 at the Country Club of Birmingham Invitational in B’ham in early April. Then we put it all together this past week at the Seaside Course.

So proud of the team. Coach Limbaugh, like Coach Corbin, is the best coach in the country. Assistant Coach Gator Todd is going to be a head coach in the future, and he’ll be a success. Hope we can keep him longer. I covered Gator when I was working for the Birmingham News and he was playing in the Alabama High School State Championships in Mobile in 2004. He was a state champion that year. I walked the ringal round with him in his round on the final day, Gator was playing for Coffee High School in Florence, AL., and Richard, his father and former standout quarterback for Alabama in the early to mid 70’s and standout in the NFL for the New York Jets, was a super guy. Really had an awesome day following Gator. He’s got what it takes to be a phenomenal head coach, but I hope we can keep him a little longer unless he gets offered a position that he can’t refuse.

And we have the great Coach Limbaugh. He was amazing in his post round interview and it was very moving to see Scott hug his wife, Kate, and his young children, daughters Malley and Annie, and son Thomas.

What a coach. What a team. Now it’s onto the NCAA’s, and, obviously, we want to do well there. But we should be able to enjoy this major accomplishment because it is tremendous to win the SEC in any sport. And with how competitive it is in men’s golf, it’s something our coaches and players should be able to celebrate for a good while. The NCAA’s are in 16 days, so we’ll get ready for that soon, but for right now it’s time to honor our superb team and our phenomenal Coach. Can’t wait for the NCAA’s, but going to enjoy this for a while too. A long time as a matter of fact. I’m sure Coach Limbaugh, Coach Todd and the players will enjoy this accomplishment for a long time as well. They should. It’s a lifetime memory for the players and the coaches.

Also of note, our former All American Matthias Schwab played in the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open in Spain on the European Tour and finished tied for 8th at -16. Matthias is playing awesome golf on the European circuit and he could win out there and get on the PGA Tour as well. Really excited about what Matthias can do with Brandt, Luke List, Gordo and Johnny “Clutch” Augenstein on the PGA Tour right now. Clutch is getting some exemptions to play at present, and has an excellent shot to make the tour in the near future.

Brandt and his partner Keith Mitchell, 29, and a former Georgia Bulldog, finished tied for 4th at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans on TPC Louisiana. It was a 2 man team event. Brandt and Keith finished -18. Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith won it in a playoff over Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwatzel. Those teams finished -20. So awesome stuff from Brandt. His game has really come around recently, and, at 40 years old, Brandt still has some excellent golf in front of him. Forty seven year old Stewart Cink just won his second tournament of the year at the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Sunday a week ago, so Brandt can play some stellar golf in his 40’s and win, including winning a major or majors. Believe in Sneds. Luke is also playing some good golf and Gordo will win in the near future. Expect John to be a winner on tour as well.

So amazing stuff coming from our golf program. Can’t wait for the next challenge in the NCAA’s.

Baseball takes series from State

Our No.2 team as ranked by D1Baseball defeated now No.6 Mississippi State 2 out of 3 games at Hawkins Field over the weekend, with some stellar pitching from Kumar Friday Night and a spectacular comeback yesterday.

We moved to 31-7 overall and 13-5 in the SEC with the victories. Arkansas is still No.1 by virtue of their taking 2 of 3 from South Carolina at Columbia over the weekend. They are 13-5 as well and tied for us for the conference lead. They are 31-7 overall.

Kumar was phenomenal Friday Night. He pitched a complete game, 3 hit, 2 run, with only 1 being earned, with 0 walks and 8 K’s in our 6-2 victory. Kumar threw 109 pitches with 70 for strikes against 39 balls. Our junior stud and leader was on fire. Sophomore catcher C.J. Rodriguez was 3 for 3 with an RBI. Parker Noland was 2 for 4 with a double. Isaiah Thomas and Cooper Davis each had 2 Ribbies on the night. So superb night for Kumar and the team. Our big fella moved to 9-1 on the season with a 1.55 ERA. Kumar has walked 15 and K’d 89. He’s an All American this season and he can lead us to tremendous success with his leadership and his talent. Our excellent media relations rep for baseball, Josh Foster, just reported that Kumar was named Co-SEC Pitcher of the week. He has allowed just one earned run in his last 2 starts, 16 innings of work. Both of those outtings coming against top 5 opponents as Kumar was spectacular on the road at Tennessee a week and a half ago. UT was ranked No.5 at the time. They are now No.4. State was No.3 coming into this past weekend. This was Kumar’s second SEC Player of the week honor. He shares the honor this week with Arkansas pitcher Kevin Kopps. So Kumar just keeps doin work for his team and his school.

On Saturday Night, Jack Leiter took his first loss as we lost to State, 7-4. Jack didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled and still did some good things. It just wasn’t our night. Jack is still 7-1 with a 1.49 ERA with 25 walks and 102 K’s. Kumar leads the country in victories at 9, and Jack leads the country in strikeouts with an 11 K lead over the next 2 guys, who are at 91.

Yesterday, we were down 4-0 and it looked kind of grim until the 4th inning when our superb sophomore shortstop Carter Young tripled to deep central field. Freshman DH Jack Bulger got him home on a ground ball and a throwing error on State. Jack got to second on the error and C.J. got him home with a single. The lead was cut to 4-2 after 4. In the fifth, senior third baseman Jayson Gonzalez led off with a single to right. Our awesome leadoff man, freshman centerfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. walked. More on Enrique in a little bit. Then Carter cranked one over the right field wall to put us ahead 5-4. We scored 2 more runs in the 6th on a 2 out, 2 run single to left by the great Enrique. Enrique is now hitting .331, and he leads the country with 30 stolen bases out of 32 attempts, which is astounding. And he’s playing spectacular centerfield. He had a circus diving catch on Friday Night to save maybe a triple. Enrique leads the country in SBs and is a game changer when he gets on base, which is frequently. Carter is now hitting .295 with 10 homers and 36 Ribeyes. And he’s just a phenomenally skilled shortstop. Dominic Keegan still leads us in hitting at .373. C.J. is hitting .326 and Isaiah is hitting .316. We are hitting .300 as a team. We are fielding at a .974 clip, and our opponents are at .967. We are stellar on defense.

And, of course, not to be left out were the pitching performances by sophomores Chris McElvain and Nick Maldonado. Chris took over from Patrick Reilly in the first and pitched 5.1 innings, giving up 5 hits, 1 earned, with 2 walks and 4 K’s. Then Nick came in and finished it off going 3.1 with 0 hits or runs, 1 walk, which was questionable as he looked like he had strike 3 in that at bat, and struck out 4. Nick earned his 3rd save of the year. Chris moved to 3-0. That McElvain-Maldonado combination is lethal. We’re still trying to figure out Sundays for our starter, or Saturdays, if we start Thursdays. I know Corbs wants to figure that out with pitching coach Scott Brown. Thomas Schultz has been pitching well in mid-week games, but Corbs may want to keep him there. McElvain could be an answer. He’s been tremendous the last 2 Sundays. Patrick Reilly is a talented freshman arm and has shown signs of being effective. So we’ll have to see. I’d like to keep Schultz mid week and then try McElvain on Sundays. We’ll see what Corbs decides. Up to him.

This week there is no mid-week game, so we’ll be at Florida, Friday through Sunday. Friday’s game is at 6 PM CT on ESPNU, Saturday’s game is at 5:30 PM CT on SEC Network+, and Sunday’s game is at 2 PM CT on ESPN2. So another extremely challenging week for our team at the No.14 team in the country. The Gators are 11-7 in the SEC and 23-5 overall, so this is a major series. They were the preseason No.1, so the talent is through the roof as usual. But so is our’s, so we’ll be ready.

Will have more coming up later in the week. Women’s Soccer plays Saturday at 2 PM CT versus the winner of the Penn State-Alabama State match on Wednesday in the NCAA Tournament. This will be the second round as we are seeded 16th and get a bye in the first round. So, huge week for our soccer team.

Women’s tennis should be in the NCAA’s as we are ranked 22nd in the country. The NCAA’s will be announced today at 5 PM CT today. Will let you know about that. Our women lost in the first round of the SEC Tournament to South Carolina, 4-1, but we have good talent and can get hot.