Our Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team with terrific effort despite adversity; Baseball today 5 P.M. CT vs Wright State, SEC Network

Our senior, Jackson Van Paris, is an All American and 2nd team All-SEC (Photo courtesy of Instagram).

Our Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team, under the great Scott Limbaugh, didn’t reach our yearly goal of making the Final Four and winning it all, but, despite not having senior Gordon Sargent in the lineup for the entire NCAA Tournament, the team finished tied for 13th overall in the country at the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California this past Monday.

Senior Jackson Van Paris, junior Wells Williams, who was SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, junior John Broderick, sophomore Chase Nevins and freshman Ryan Downes finished second in the NCAA Regionals at Amherst, Virginia to qualify for the 30 team NCAA Championship. The guys made it through the first three days of the Championship stroke play to qualify as one of the top 15 teams that played in day 4  on Monday. They didn’t advance in that 18 hole stroke play round to qualify for the 8 team NCAA match play field, but gave it a nice effort.

Besides JVP, none of the other guys had NCAA Championship experience. Losing Sargent was a bit painful because he won the NCAA Individual Championship his freshman year, but never quite achieved as much for us as we had anticipated he would. I’m sure he’s a great guy, but struggled in match play through the years, and just couldn’t finish the season out with us this year. He was really struggling this season. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it, maybe he was just struggling with his game, which happens. Too bad he couldn’t help us more through the years.

But Williams shot a final round 5 under, Van Paris had an awesome career for us with All American honors in 2024 and second team All SEC this season. JVP is headed to the Korn Ferry Tour, where he’ll have a shot to qualify for the PGA Tour at the end of the season by getting in the top 30 on the points list on that Triple A tour, or by the PGA Q School.  Pulling hard for JVP going forward. He gave us a great, dedicated four years.

Wells will return for his senior season and will be our leader. Chase, John and Ryan will all be back, and Chase and Ryan had some good rounds in the NCAA Championship, so all four gained valuable experience in their first time on the big stage.

And our super coach, Scott Limbaugh, has signed the No.1class in the country for 2025-26. Will Hartman of Charlotte Catholic H.S. in Charlotte, N.C., Michael Riebe of Cathedral Catholic in Encinitas, CA., and Jon Ed Steed of Enterprise (High School), Alabama are all coming on board for the 2025-26 season. All are top 20 players in the country and will add immensely to next year’s team. Jon Ed is from my wife, Beth’s, stomping grounds, Enterprise, so I’m very excited to see JES compete for us. 

So, a lot to be excited about for Coach Limbaugh’s golf team next season. National Championships are Alwaysour goal under Coach Limbaugh, and he and his players will relentlessly pursue that aspiration once again in 2025-26. Proud of what the guys accomplished this season despite the adversity with Gordon Sargent not being a part of the team.

Game time for Vanderbilt Baseball today versus Wright State is 5 P.M. CT on the SEC Network. JD Thompson will get the ball for us, and I’m sorry I don’t have this absolute intel, but I have a strong feeling Wright State will go with their senior left hander Garrett Peters. Peters is 5-0 with a 4.58 ERA. He’s walked 25 and struck out 52. He’s given up 11 doubles, two triples and 8 homers. He pitched a complete, 9- inning game last Friday Night versus Northern Kentucky allowing just one hit and one run, a solo shot, with 6 walks and 11 K’s.

But, and I had to look at this three times to make sure it was accurate, he threw 149 pitches. Wow, is that overworking a pitcher or what? Guess they had to have it to make the NCAA’s, so I assume his arm will be OK for today’s game.

JD, as you know, is our left handed junior and leader for our pitching staff who is 5-5 with a 4.06 ERA with 29 walks and 110 K’s. JD has given up 12 doubles, 2 triples and 9 long ones, and he was terrific last Thursday versus Oklahoma, going 5, giving up just 2 hits, 1 earned  run, with 3 walks and 11 punch outs.

Have full confidence in the man. Have an awesome weekend, Go Dores and I’ll keep you apprised. 

Our Vanderbilt Baseball Team is Profoundly Exceptional

Our superb freshman Brodie Johnston was phenomenal in the SEC Tournament. (Photo courtesy of You Tube).

A friend of mine in Birmingham, “PW” Watts, emailed me after the San Antonio Spurs, with Coach Greg Popovich, Tim Duncan (the Big Fundamental), Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, had won their fifth NBA Championship in 15 years in 2014, and called the Spurs, “sublime.” I agreed with PW then and I will say the same about Coach Tim Corbin and this Vanderbilt University Baseball Team. 

This coach and these group of players are profoundly good  and not just on the baseball field, where they are prolific. When Coach Corbin meets with his players, which is frequently, he mainly talks about the players doing everything they can to be “good men.” To Coach Corbin, that’s what’s most important. 

If you read the roster bios on each player, Coach Corbin has comments on each one. They’re awesome comments and so accurate, and he closes talking about almost every one of the guys saying, “he was on the Dean’s list in the fall.” 

Isn’t that what college athletics is supposed to be about? With Greg Sankey and the Big Ten Commissioner, Tony Petitti, trying to professionalize college football more every day as they now try to institute a 16 team playoff, it’s really nice to see a coach who still cares about academics for his players, and players who care about doing well in all facets of their lives.

This team plays the game the right way. They’re warriors on the field, but they’re also gentlemen. The “heart beat,” as Coach Corbin likes to say, is unified, and together. It leads to successful results on the baseball field and in life for these young men.

I love this 2025 team. I have loved every team we’ve had under Coach Corbin. They’ve all been special. But these guys bring their own uniqueness to Vanderbilt baseball. They’re their own entity. And it’s a special legacy they are in the midst of leaving.

We have a lot of work left. We have a regional to host with three other highly competitive teams. We play Wright State (38-19, 25-5 Horizon), a team that hits .305 and has some pretty decent pitching. Game time tomorrow, Friday, is 5 P.M. CT on the SEC Network. JD Thompson will be on the hill for us, while I’m guesstimating it’ll be sophomore left hander Griffen Paige for them (1-3 with an 8.90 ERA, but had a very good start last time  out versus Northern Kentucky, 6 IP, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 walk, 8 K’s). Louisville (35-21, 15-15 ACC), which defeated us up at their place in mid May, and East Tennessee State (41-15, 14-7 Southern Conf), play at 1 P.M. CT at our regional Friday.

But we played spectacular baseball at the SEC Tournament with superb pitching by JD, Cody Bowker, Connor Fennell and Austin Nye, among others, superb defense, led by some amazing plays by our “sublime” freshman Brodie Johnston, who, when God decided he wanted to create a prototypical baseball player to play for Vanderbilt University and beyond, he turned his attention to Ooltewah, Tennessee on March 13, 2006 and brought one Brodie  Kenneth Johnston into the world. Brodie is another gift to this profoundly exceptional baseball team. He made play after play at third, throwing out a runner at home on Saturday in a key moment against Tennessee, making super play after super play at third and hitting a key two run shot on Sunday versus Ole Miss, his 13th homer and 52nd and 53rd Ribeyes of the season.

The whole infield was terrific. Another great freshman, Rustan Rigdon, was turning double plays beautifully. Ruston has found a home and had three hits on Saturday in a huge performance for us. Our spectacular senior, Jonathan “Johnny 
V” Vastine, was his typical stellar self at short, and our awesome first baseman, Riley Nelson, was digging’em out at first. Riley is an outstanding defensive first baseman as well as an outstanding hitter for us.

Centerfielder RJ Austin, our inspirational leader along with Johnny V and JD, led us in the outfield along with the great Jacob Humphrey, our right fielder, who hit a crucial home run to right on Sunday. Left fielder Braden Holcomb may not have been known for his defense coming out of high school because his bat was so prolific, but the sophomore made a tremendous grab of a sinking line drive in left on Sunday. Braden is excellent in left and brings a massive stick to the plate.

And our great catcher, Colin Barczi, is just steady and brings greatness to the position, both behind the dish and at the plate. 

So, this all adds up to an exceptional baseball team. We’ve got our work cut out for us to make it to Omaha. Watching the Selection Show on Monday, I thought to myself, “Wow, there is a massive amount of talent in this 64 team field.”

But I love this head coach, these coaches and this stellar group of profoundly good players, who also happen to be profoundly great people. It starts at the top and we’ve got the man who has done it at Vanderbilt University for 23 years and counting. 

This team is sublime. This coach is sublime. This season could very well end up being sublime. We’ve got the pieces in place to make it that way. It starts Friday at 5 P. M. CT. Can’t wait to tell you all about it. 

Our Commodores get the job done in Knoxville; major series coming up Thursday through Saturday; postseason right around the corner. Where we stand

Our Vanderbilt Commodores Baseball team secured a phenomenal series victory at parts unknown in Tennessee on Sunday against a team we absolutely detest.

The Dores hit four homers, led by Colin Barczi’s two, and Jonathan Vastine’s and Mike Mancini’s solo shots in our 7-5 victory over the team from the East and their very much disliked coach; at least as far as we’re concerned. We took two of three from them, including a 10-6 victory Saturday and the 7-5 W on Sunday. Ethan McElvain was gigantic on Sunday to close out the victory and earn the save for our team, striking out one of their players with the bases loaded and 2 outs as we were hanging on to our 7-5 lead. Ethan is a warrior, and Corbs loves warriors. That’s what Corbs is and Ethan certainly is, too, as are a lot of the players on this spectacular baseball team, including our leaders, Vastine, RJ Austin and JD Thompson.

We moved to 16-11 in the SEC and 36-16 overall, and are now ranked No.9 in the country by the D1Baseball.com top 25 rankings. They fell to 15-12 and 39-13. They are now ranked 17th nationally.

Our metrics are good for the postseason as we head into the Kentucky series at home @ the Hawk starting Thursday and continuing through Saturday. Our RPI is 3, our Quad one wins are 15, which is excellent, our strength of schedule is now No.2 in the country, and we are presently the fourth place team in the SEC, which, if the SEC Tournament was held today, would allow us to have a double bye at Hoover and play on Thursday in the 16-team, single elimination format. It’s a riveting format with Texas and Oklahoma in the conference now. Every team gets a shot, but it’s just one shot, and a bye is big, while a double bye is even bigger. Thanks to Vandy 247 Sports for the intel on the metrics.

Texas is No.1 in the SEC with a 20-9 conference record and a 40-10 overall mark. Arkansas is second at 18-9 and 41-11; LSU, now No.1 in the country according to D1baseball, is third at 17-10 and 40-12 overall. Our guys, Georgia and Auburn are tied for fourth at 16-11, and we are the fourth seed by virtue of our head to head record with the other two teams we’re tied with. We are 4-2 against Georgia and Auburn, Georgia is 3-3 against us and Auburn and Auburn is 2-4 against us and Georgia. We lost two out of three at Auburn to start the SEC season, but could have easily won that series as we had a 6-2 lead on Sunday and lost 7-6. We swept Georgia at home April 17th-19th. The record versus the other teams amongst those respective teams that are tied is the first tiebreaker. If it was just us and Auburn which were tied, Auburn would get the tiebreaker because they took 2 out of 3 from us at their place March 14th-16th.

However, there is a lot to be decided when Kentucky comes to town this Thursday. If Corbs was to read this, he would get hot because he knows this scenario won’t matter if we can’t be successful this weekend. But it’s fun for sportswriters and VU fans to pontificate on. Thursday’s game is at 6 P.M. CT on SEC Network+; Friday’s game is at 6 P.M. CT on SEC Net+; and Saturday’s game is at 2 P.M. CT on SECN+.

So there’s still a lot of work ahead of us. But we still can, at least as fans and a VU sportswriter, enjoy what our players did over the weekend in eastern Tennessee. Saturday we were a 10-6 winner after a tough 3-2 loss on Friday Night. JD Thompson pitched well Friday despite the loss. JD is doing very well for us right now, which bodes well for our immediate and long term future this season. We stole 8 bases on Saturday off their pitching and catcher. Jacob Humphrey swiped 3 and has 19 on the season. He came out of Sunday’s game out of caution for a concussion. He sustained a concussion a couple of weeks ago. Jacob’s return Thursday is TBD. Sophomore David Mendez replaced Jacob on Sunday, and while Mendez is a pretty good replacement, we need Jacob if he can get back. He’s an electric player for us. Rustan Rigdon stole two bags and has 16 on the year. Rustan also made an excellent play at second on Sunday, stopping a ball heading for center field and making a leaping throw to first baseman Riley Nelson, who dug it out for the stellar play. Riley is quite a first baseman along with being a terrific hitter for us. Riley (7), Braden Holcomb (2) and Mike Mancini (2) also stole a bag. Braden was 2 for 4 with his eighth homer of the season and added 3 Ribeyes. RJ Austin was 1 for 5, but drove in three. Jacob was two for three with the three stolen bases and made a spectacular catch in the 8th to preserve the lead. The hitter smashed it to the right field corner in what looked like would be a sure triple. But our star senior dove to his left and snagged the ball before it hit the ground for the defensive play of the game to get us out of the inning. Ethan came on in the bottom of the 9th and closed it out 1-2-3.

Then, on Sunday, we took off with the bats. Our great catcher, Colin Barczi, hit a pair of shots, one solo and one a two run shot in the top of the 6th to score himself and Holcomb, who had tripled right before Colin’s oppo shot. That made the score 5-3. Then there was a two hour lightning delay. After the delay, Vastine launched his shot to left. Pretty amazing stuff from our super senior after sitting on the bench for two hours waiting to hit. Then in the top of the 9th, our DH, Mike Mancini, cranked one over the left field wall, a huge shot that put us up 7-5. Ethan came on and ran into some trouble in the bottom of the 9th, but shut the door with the bases jammed and two outs by striking out their hitter to close out the game and clinch the series. Corbs said in the postgame that the team grew up 10 years after that series victory on Sunday.

So, awesome way to close out the weekend. We got solid pitching Sunday from England Bryan, who was hitting 97-98 MPH on the radar gun, Luke Guth, who is looking very reliable, and Miller Green. Alex Kranzler struggled a little, but he’s still trustable. Connor Fennell started and wasn’t his sharpest, but we still have trust in Connor. Cody Bowker got the start Saturday Night and pitched decently. We need Cody and Connor to be good for us, and, of course, JD as well.

So here we are heading into the last weekend of the season. Here is the SEC schedule for Thursday through Saturday. We play Kentucky (13-14, 28-20). Kentucky is looking for victories to get in the hunt for the NCAA Tournament and enhance its position in the SEC Tournament, so they’ll be hungry. We need to be just as relentless as we have been this season. No.3 (nationally) Texas (20-7, 40-10) plays @ OU (13-14, 32-17). Texas A&M (10-17, 27-20) is @ No. 10 Georgia (16-11, 40-13). No.18 Alabama (15-12, 39-13) is @ No.23 Florida (13-14, 35-18), which has come on lately. No.1 LSU (17-10, 40-12) is @South Carolina (5-22, 26-26). Mississippi State (12-15, 31-20) is @ Missouri (3-24, but swept A&M on the road this past weekend, 16-35). No.6 Auburn (16-11, 36-15) is @ Ole Miss (14-13, 34-17). And No.17 Tennessee (thought I could make it through this column without saying their name, so it goes, 15-12, 39-13) is @ No.8 Arkansas (18-9, 41-11).

So a lot of work ahead of us, but I like the way this team is trending with a lot of electric baseball in front of us. I’ll keep you very much apprised throughout the weekend as our team competes with Kentucky. The stakes are high, so we’ll need to maintain our blue collar, relentless mentality throughout the weekend starting Thursday at 6 P.M. on SECN+.

Men’s Golf surging at the Amherst (VA) Regional

The Vanderbilt Men’s Golf Team is presently in first place in day three, the final day of the Amherst, Virginia regional. Amherst has been getting the weather that has been transpiring throughout the southeast the last several days, and play has been suspended for the day and will resume Wednesday at 6:30 A.M. CT. However, through holes 6-8, we are presently at three under as a team for the tournament and three shots ahead of Oklahoma and Tennessee, which are each at even par. The top 5 in the 14 team regional qualifies for the NCAA Championships. More on that after we complete play and hopefully emerge successfully. We’ve gotten stellar play from senior Jackson Van Paris, who has taken the team on his shoulders this week and has been that way all season. JVP is presently -1 today and 7 under for the tournament and is leading the individual leaderboard. The next two guys are at 4 under par. So, awesome work by our dedicated senior from Pinehurst, North Carolina. Will absolutely keep you apprised of our attempt to close this out and win the region and qualify for the NCAA Championships. More to come tomorrow.

Great stuff from our Vandy Boys. You gotta love these guys. Clark and Mark are still forming their respective teams for 2025-26. Love the prospects for both our football and men’s basketball coaches and teams.

Baseball is the priority right now though. Men’s golf is riveting also. Anchor Down and I’ll keep you informed in the upcoming days starting tomorrow with a report on our men’s golf team and throughout the weekend with our Vandy Boys.

Johnston, Holcomb, RJ, Riley and the Bats cooked over the weekend as the Dores keep climbing in the SEC and national scene; Football, Men’s and Women’s Bball, Men’s Golf and Women’s Tennis also

The Vanderbilt Commodores Baseball team finished this past weekend off electrically with super freshman Brodie Johnston and stellar sophomore Braden Holcomb putting an exclamation point on a dramatic Commodores victory Sunday at the Hawk, 9-7, over the Alabama Crimson Tide. With the victory which allowed us to take two out of three from Bama, the Dores moved to 34-14 on the season and 14-10 in the SEC, good for tied for 5th with Tennessee in the SEC standings. No.1 Texas is first at 19-5 and is 38-8 overall; No.7 Arkansas, which swept Texas over the weekend in Fayetteville, is second at 17-7, and 40-9 overall; No.3 LSU (38-11) and No.6 Georgia (39-11) are tied for third at 15-9 and and No. 15 Tennessee (37-11) and us are at 14-10, tied for fifth. We have a major week this week starting today with a 6 P. M. Central time game @ Louisville in the annual “Battle for the Barrel.” The game will be broadcast by the ACC Network.

We are now ranked 11th in the country by D1 Baseball.com and Baseball America. Our RPI is No.3 and our strength of schedule is also third nationally. The great sportswriter Chris Lee of Vandy 247 Sports showed today on the site that we are ranked first in the KPI Rankings, which is a strength of record metric. So, all impressive stuff for a team that is coming together at the right time. D1Baseball,com had us as a 9 seed going into last week, so if we can have a good week this week, which includes @ Louisville today and at Tennessee over the weekend, we can put ourselves in position for that coveted top 8 national seed, which gives a team home field throughout the regionals and Super regionals. So, massive week starting today. But here’s a look at what transpired over the weekend at the Hawk. It was a majestic Friday and a particularly majestic Sunday.

Friday Night, we received a stellar pitching performance from JD Thompson who went 7, gave up only 2 hits, no runs with 2 walks and 11 strikeouts in a 12-2, 8 inning, run rule game. The run rule applies if one team has a 10 run lead through 7 innings. JD was terrific. Miller Green pitched the last inning, and while Miller struggled a little giving up two runs on three hits, I still believe he can help us during the home stretch of the season and in the postseason. The bats came alive in the sixth inning after being silent through the first five frames. Alabama pitcher Tyler Fay had been tough, but in the sixth we struck for three runs, we added three more in the 7th, and we tacked on 6 more in the bottom of the 8th to run rule them, 12-2. Our great centerfielder RJ Austin was 4 for 5 with 4 Ribeyes, including a three run shot in the eighth. Our exceptional junior transfer first baseman Riley Nelson (Western Texas College and Yavapai College), who is hitting .361 with 6 long ones and 35 Ribbies, was 2 for 4, and our superb freshman third baseman Brodie Johnston was 3 for 4 with 2 runs batted in. Senior shortstop Jonathan Vastine, who has been phenomenal in SEC play, was 2 for 4 with an RBI. So, awesome performance Friday Night. Saturday didn’t work out as well as we fell, 5-2. But Sunday was a typical vintage Tim Corbin-coached Vanderbilt University Baseball performance in a game that will be remembered for a good while, particularly if we finish our season off well and go extremely deep in the postseason, which we are highly capable of.

It was not looking that swift for the guys as we were down 7-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning. Our superb sophomore Dayton transfer pitcher Connor Fennell, who dominated Ole Miss the week before, had some trouble against the Crimson Tide giving up a couple of long ones with runners on base, so it was looking pretty slim for us going into the bottom of the 8th. But then, our bats woke up in a big way. After Nelson and Johnston popped out , Holcomb hit a solo shot to right central with two outs to cut the lead to 7-3. Mac Rose walked, then catcher Colin Barczi, who has put together some clutch at bats for us this season, cranked one over the right field wall to cut the lead to 7-5 going into the ninth. In the top of the ninth, the Tide’s leadoff hitter doubled off our usual stellar closer, Sawyer Hawks. Sawyer got the Tide’s next hitter to pop out to second baseman Mike Mancini. Bryce Fowler, the Tide’s runner aboard second, could not advance. Sawyer walked Kade Snell, then we made the defensive play that saved the game and possibly transformed our season. Tide centerfielder Richie Bonomolo hit a line drive headed for left field. But Brodie reached out and snatched it. Brodie then fired the ball over to Mancini, who touched second for an inning ending double play. It was gigantic as it turned out. That play might be overlooked when we look back on this dramatic game, but it was critically important and was a possible epiphany for this baseball team’s season and giving us a shot in the bottom of the 9th. That’s when the fireworks ensued.

The Tide put in their stellar closer Carson Ozmer, who was 14 of 14 in save opportunities this year. His ERA was under 2 and his WHIP (walks plus hits per inning) was under 1, which is almost un-hittable. However, Mancini led off with a single to left to get it started. Our great freshman left fielder Ruston Rigdon was hit by pitch. RJ came up next and bunted to move runners to second and third. I was a bit surprised by that because you always want the bat in RJ’s hands in that situation, but I couldn’t tell if he was trying to get a base hit on the bunt, or move the guys over. Nonetheless, it was runners on second and third with one out. Riley came up and grounded out to the pitcher. Mancini might have made it home as the ball bounced to the pitchers left, but he didn’t want to be the second out there, so he stayed put. I don’t blame him for that. It turned out to the the right decision. So there were two outs with runners on second and third with Johnston coming up. Brodie looked so confident when he stepped up to the plate. He looked like one of the top players in the country coming out of Boyd Buchanan High School in Ooltewah, TN., which he was, so I thought to myself, maybe we’ve got a shot here. With the pressure as intense as it gets in SEC Baseball, Brodie hit a line drive no doubt double to the left central field gap to drive in Mancini and Rigdon and we were all tied up at 7. Next up was our superb hoss, Braden, who had tripled and homered in his previous two at bats. With a 1-2 count, and the pressure as intense as it gets, Braden drove one to deep centerfield that kept carrying and cleared the central field wall for a dynamic two run homer to end the game and give our guys a scintillating, incredibly important victory over the Crimson Tide, 9-7. It was majestic with the pressure the guys had on them in the moment, particularly Brodie and Braden, and great stuff from Mike, Ruston and RJ as well. Brodie was named SEC Freshman of the week yesterday on account of his stellar play last week.

So we matriculate into May on a high note facing major rivalry games ahead. Here’s a look at what’s next.

Today at 6 PM CT it’s the Louisville Cardinals, always a tough out, The game is at Louisville. The Cardinals are not presently ranked, but have been in the top 25 all season before losing 2 out of 3 @ Notre Dame this past weekend. The Cardinals are 32-15 overall, 13-11 in the ACC, and 25-4 at their home confines of Jim Patterson Stadium. They took 2 out of 3 from now No.2 Florida State the weekend of April 25-27th (Friday-Sunday) at home. They took 1 of 3 @ No.9 Clemson April 17th-19th, a Thursday through a Saturday with an 8-6, 12 inning victory on Saturday, 4/19. They defeated now No.1 Texas at Arlington, TX. the first game of the season 4-3 on Friday, Feb. 14th. They’ve split games with Kentucky, which is 25-20 overall and 10-14 in the SEC. The Cardinals won at Jim Patterson, 4-3, in 10 innings on Tuesday, 4/8, and lost to the Wildcats at Lexington, 17-5, on Tuesday, 4/22. So, for every good team in the country there are ups and downs throughout the season, but there have been a lot of ups for this team, particularly at home. They’re an excellent hitting team with a .313 team batting average. Centerfielder Lucas Moore leads the team with a .380 average. He has also stolen 39 of 40 bases. The team has stolen 120 out of 132 bags this season. They are 10th in the country in that category. VMI leads with 200. Moore is fifth in the country in stolen bases with his 39, so Collin Barczi will be tested behind the plate and our pitching needs to limit the base stealing if possible. Their power guy is first baseman Davis Tague, who has connected for 15 homers and 43 RBIs on the season. He’s hitting .283. Left fielder Zion Rose is hitting .337 with 9 homers and 50 RBIs. And designated hitter Eddie King Jr. is hitting .336 with 9 homers and 41 runs driven in. Their team ERA is 5.53. They seem to run a bullpen game during the mid-week games, but they may use more of a weekend rotation guy against us. Wish I had that intel for you. Some candidates are Peter Michael (4-3, 5.01), Parker Detmers (1-1, 3.94) and Wyatt Danilowicz (0-1, 2.25), but nothing concrete. Their fielding percentage is .972. Coach Dan McDonnell has taken his Louisville teams to 5 College World Series (2007, ’13, ’14, ’17, ’19). He’s good. Not Tim Corbin good, but he’s good.

I know we have a massive weekend series in Knoxville, but this game takes precedence. I’ll have more on UT tomorrow, but we’ve got to survive and advance through this game as it’s important in the national picture for our RPI and our national seeding if we can get over the top. We are now hitting .270 as a team with Riley leading us at .361 (6 homers, 35 RBIs). Jacob Humphrey is injured and not sure about his return date, but hopeful it’s very soon. Braden has been doing a nice job in his spot in right field while Jacob has been out of the lineup. Jacob is hitting .314 and has stolen 16 of 17 bases. Braden is hitting .287 and has been sizzling lately. He has 7 homers and 27 Ribbies. Brodie is batting .272, and he’s also been cookin’ lately in the SEC, and has 9 deep ones and 46 Ribeyes on the year. RJ had been in a slump until last week and was injured for a minute, but looks to have come out of it. He’s hitting .266 with 11 doubles (Brodie leads the team with 14), and 4 team leading triples, maybe the most exciting play in baseball, though a grand salami or a two run shot like Braden hit on Sunday is pretty terrific also. But love the triples and RJ provides them, which is an incredible asset to have. RJ is 19 of 23 in stolen bases. We have stolen 82 of 98 attempts this season. Jonathan Vastine is hitting .272 on the year with 6 homers and 30 Ribeyes. Jonathan and RJ are such superb leaders for this team with JD Thompson the leader of the pitching staff. Our team pitching ERA is 3.81. That’s great, but would like to still see some more consistency out of our starters and our bullpen. That will hopefully happen going forward, starting tonight. The defense is tremendous. We are fielding at a .983 percentage, which is good for fourth in the country. Wow. Charlotte leads the nation at .984. We’re tied with Arkansas and University of Texas Rio Grande? at .983. For some reason, the NCAA has us behind Arkansas and Rio Grande, though we’ve made fewer errors. I’ll look into that and get back to you on the reason why that is. Regardless, we are a sensational defensive team.

Not sure what Corbs wants to do tonight with his starting pitcher. Austin Nye has been very good as our midweek pitcher going 2-0 with a 1.83 ERA with 16 walks and 46 K’s. Coach Corbin may very well go with the freshman right hander out of Roseville, California or he might take a shot with hard throwing lefty Ethan McElvain, who has a 7.54 ERA, but has talent through the roof if he can control his pitches. It will be an interesting decision. I’m leaning towards Nye.

This team is special for sure. It’s hard to compare Tim Corbin coached teams because they all have their own unique and spectacular personalities, but this one stands out to me alongside the other great Corbin’ coached teams. We have great camaraderie, superb heart and stellar mental toughness. And we’ve got a lot of baseball left ahead of us starting today at 6 P.M on the ACC Network. Will have a report tomorrow along with a preview of our weekend series at the Eastern part of the state. So much can happen in this next week and a half. After the Tennessee series, which is this Friday through Sunday, we’ll host the Kentucky Wildcats the following Thursday-Saturday, May 15th-17th. Then the SEC Tournament commences Tuesday, May 20th-Sunday May 25th at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, AL. It will be a single elimination game tournament with all 16 teams playing. If we can get in the top four of the conference standings at the end of the regular season, we’ll earn a double bye and not have to play until Thursday, 5/22, which would be tremendous. The SEC Network will televise the majority of the Tournament, with ESPN2 taking over Sunday, May 25th at 2 P.M. Central. Will have TV for Tennessee series tomorrow, Wednesday. So, need to bear down right now. Like the guys to do just that.

Football, Men’s Basketball, Men’s Golf, Women’s Tennis

Just wanted to share a little intel on some of our other terrific teams. Clark has added a terrific 2025 class with a nice freshmen group led by 92 four-star safety Carson Lawrence, who is an early enrollee, along with 14 linemen, incoming freshmen and transfers, 8 on offense and 6 on defense. It’s been a stellar offseason for Clark and the team. Diego will be back, as will Eli Stowers, Junior Sherrill, Sedy Alexander, AJ Newberry, superb corner Martel Hight, a talented linebacker corps and some serious talent and depth upfront, and in the secondary. It’s a historically talented Vanderbilt roster. I know it can be hard to get your hopes up sometimes with football because it’s been tough through the years, but this coaching staff and this team are different. Diego always thinks he’s the best player on the field every Saturday and his confidence and competitiveness permeates throughout the team. There are high hopes for sure. Game one is Charleston Southern, Saturday, August 30th, at FirstBank Stadium, which should be almost entirely redone and ready for our thrilling upcoming 2025 season giving fans a spectacular fan experience. I’ll keep you apprised of developments as we matriculate into the summer with any more transfers coming our way. We’ve got 6, 2026 commits and one of them is massive in 92, 4-star cornerback Caden Harris from Brownsville, Tennessee. We beat out Tennessee, Notre Dame, Georgia and Auburn among others for Caden. It was a tremendous get by Clark and the staff. We’re 34th right now in the 2026 recruiting rankings according to 247 Sports and General Manager Barton Simmons says the momentum is surging for our program after our 2024 season as we defeated Alabama at FirstBank, and Auburn and Kentucky on the road and looked exceptionally impressive in our Birmingham Bowl victory over Georgia Tech.

Men’s Basketball

Coach Mark Byington has done a terrific job rebuilding our men’s basketball team for 2025-26. it’s just the landscape now in college basketball that you’ll lose most of your team after a season. Hopeful that can change with some adjustments by anyone who has some power in college athletics. We retained three outstanding players in Devin McGlockton, Tyler Nickel and Tyler Tanner. Karris Bilal, a freshman point guard, who didn’t play last year due to injury, may be coming back as well. We lost AJ Hoggard, Chris Manon and Grant Huffman to graduation, which I’m proud of those guys for graduating and hope for them to have continued success in their future endeavors; they deserve it. Jason Edwards, MJ Collins and Jaylen Carey all transferred. But I love the guys we have returning. They’re all great young guys, players and leaders. And Mark has reloaded to the max. We have three freshmen in the fold for next season, in 6’10’, 89 three-star center in Jayden Leverett, 88, 3 star, 6’3″, small forward Jaylon Dean-Vines, and unranked 6’6″ small forward in Chandler Bing. Then we added four, 4 stars in the transfer portal among them a 92 point guard, Frankie Collins, from TCU, a 92, 6’10” power forward Jalen Washington from the University of North Carolina, more size to go along with those guys and two more solid players, one of whom, Mason Nicholson, is a 6’10″280, 88 3 star center from Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Alabama. So Mark is doin’ the work. We’re in it for some other guys as well to add one or two more pieces to the ’25-’26 roster. I like us to have a better team next season and matriculate even further in ’25-’26 through the SEC and deep into March.

Men’s Golf/Women’s Tennis

Our Men’s Golf Team didn’t reach the regular season standards we normally reach, but as our superb head coach Scott Limbaugh always says, it’s championship season, and anything can happen in that arena. We are ranked 18th in the CLIPPD rankings and 17 in the Bushnell/Golfweek rankings. We will be competing in the Amherst, Virginia Regional with 13 other teams next Monday, May 12th through next Wednesday, May 14th in a 54 hole event with the top five teams from the 54 hole event advancing to the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad, California at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa North Course Friday, May 23rd though Wednesday, May 28th with one team emerging from that as a national champion. We’ve got our work cut out for us for sure. Senior Jackson Van Paris has had a stellar season, and junior Wells Williams was named SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year, which is an amazing honor. Proud of both of them. We just need our stud senior Gordon Sargent to find his rhythm in the NCAA’s and help lead this team as it tries to reach greatness this postseason. The other teams in the Amherst region are: No. 6/7 LSU, No. 7/6 Oklahoma, No. 19/23 Pepperdine, No.25 Tennessee, No. 20 Arizona, Stanford, Wake, Arkansas, Florida Gulf Coast, Kent State, Princeton and Howard. There are 6 regional sites with the top 5 teams from each site advancing to the NCAA Championships for a total of 30 teams in the NCAA Championship field. Coach Limbaugh has authored many magical seasons for us, so I’m certainly not counting us out with this coach at the helm and the talent we have. Just got to be focused from tee shot number one on. Will keep you posted next week.

Women’s Tennis

The No. 15 Vanderbilt Women’s Tennis team finished off a highly successful season with a heartbreaking home loss to No.17 UCLA, 4-3, in the second round of the NCAA Regional held in Nashville at the Lummis Tennis Center. We still finished the season with a 20-7 record and were 11-4 in the SEC with at least three, maybe four top 5 national victories over top 5 nationally ranked SEC opponents. The team was awesome and coach Aleke Tsoubanos did a phenomenal job guiding this team through the rigors of an SEC season facing stellar opponent after stellar opponent. Our great senior, Celia-Belle Mohr, finished ranked fifth in the country in singles and will most likely compete in the national singles and doubles event after the team national championship has been decided. Celia, from Montargis, France, had a phenomenal senior season and the future is bright for her. We have some good players returning and will keep you posted on Celia and the national finals at the end of this season.

Women’s Basketball

Coach Shea Ralph has our program on the rise, and although we had a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament, I love our future with the great Mikayla Blakes and a superb cast of players around her returning. Will keep you informed as things develop this summer. Love what Coach Ralph has done with the team and what she has in store for us in 2025-26. We may very well be a looking at a much deeper run in March of 2026.