Pedro with not one but two long ones last night. They were beautiful. The Bull’s first one was to left, it as a bullet, in the second inning off Cardinals’ stellar pitcher Shelby Miller, who was 16-10 last year with a 3.09 ERA and helped lead the Cards to the Series. That shot was 417 feet. In the fourth, Pedro connected on a 1-2 pitch for a cannon to way out center field that did clear the park and towards the Allegheny River. It was 434 feet. Pedro was a little cold with the bat coming into the game, but when he gets going pitchers need to watch out. Love it. Bucs beat the Cards 12-2, and are playing fantastic baseball at 3-1. When those bats are on, the pitching is so good, that the Pirates are very tough to beat. Could be a very special season for Pedro and the Bucs.
Rays defeated the Rangers, 8-1. Hit well in three games this season and not so well in two. But playing good ball and are at 3-2. Like our teams, if they can both stay relatively healthy and not have any catastrophic injuries to Price, Longoria or Pedro and Andrew McCutchen, to go very deep this year, possibly meeting up in late October in the series. Dave on the hill tonight for Rays against NIck Martinez of the Rangers. This is Martinez’s first major league start. Hopefully Dave can move to 2-0 and the Rays can get some hitting going again against Martinez and the Rangers. Dave 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA after beating Toronto on opening night Monday. Sonny on the hill tomorrow for the A’s.
Excellent night for the baseball team after a tough start. Tyler gave up three runs in the first inning but settled down and Vince Conde had a huge two-run double as the Dores came back from the deficit and won 6-4 to capture the first game over the Vols at Tennessee. We moved to 25-6 on the season and 6-4 in conference. The Vols dropped to 19-9 and 3-7 on the season. Tyler settled down and went eight, giving up five hits, four earned, with two walks and six K’s. Carson came in in the ninth and got them three up three down to earn his ninth save. Looks like Corbs is going with Carson as our closer. Carson is automatic. Tyler moved to 5-3. He threw 120 pitches, 76 for strikes with 44 balls. Would like to see that ratio a little better, but he battled and earned a much needed victory. Maybe this outing is what Tyler needed to get his momentum back. Vinnie was two for four with a pair of RBIs and catcher Jason Delay was two-for-four as well. Xavier was two-for-four also with an RBI. We had nine hits and no errors. UT committed three errors. Good first night and good to get one on the road. Tonight at UT @ 6 ET/ 5 CT and will be tape delayed starting @ 7 ET/6 CT on CSS. Left hander Jared Miller (6-1, 1.73 ERA) goes for us against UT righty Hunter Martin (2-1, 1.14). Tyler Ferguson pitches tomorrow (Sunday). Tyler is 5-0 with a 1.36 ERA. Tennessee’s pitcher is to be determined. Game time tomorrow is 2 PM ET/ 1 CT and can be seen on the Vols website. I just turn the volume down and watch it.
Former VU golfer Jon Curran is -4 at the Shell Houston Open. Jon is tied for 23rd. Jon, who is 29 years old and graduated from VU in 2009, has already won on the Web.com tour this year at the Brasil Champions tournament. Jon must have gotten some sort of exemption to play on the PGA tour this week. He’s -1 for the day today through four and -4 for the tourney. Sergio is leading at -12.
Football doing well. Believe Derek is pleased so far. Quarterback race between Patton and Johnny really competitive right now and if Stephen Rivers, the LSU transfer, comes aboard this summer, could be a very interesting fall camp. Rivers not totally confirmed he’s coming to VU, but he has told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that he is coming. He said it last Saturday. Admissions needs to clear him though. Will keep you posted on that. Stephen is 6’8″, 235, so that would be a nice addition to the quarterback competition. Will know more once I watch the spring game. Pretty sure it will be tape delayed broadcasted on next Sunday, April 13th. Will have more details later. The game is scheduled for 10 AM CT next Saturday, April 12th. Interesting that we’re playing Ole Miss on Sept. 6th at LP Field in Nashville. Really fine with it. Would be nice to fill the 71,000 capacity stadium up. I don’t have a problem with the recruits not being there. I think it’s good exposure for the program. Will have more on the team this week as spring ball progresses. I think we’ll really like our defense and offensive line. Running back looks to be pretty good. Just need to get quarterback settled, probably in August, and then keep developing our wide outs. But I think we’re going to have a very physical, tough defense.
Basketball still pursuing Jackson Davis. He’s set for a visit next Friday. Jackson is the 6’8″, 215 power forward from Lexington, Ky. Would love to get Jackson to round out the class though there may be a transfer in play as well. Will keep you posted on that. Baseball doing very well both our present team and VU alums in the pros. Excited about the season! Take care. Will be in touch.