Baseball took two of three from a very good Kentucky team. Lost Friday night and won Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Tyler Beede had a little struggle Friday night and didn’t get good enough hitting and defense. Saturday and Sunday we hit a lot better and pitched well. Defense a little shaky. We have a young team. I will elaborate more on that on Wednesday. We’re still 23-6 overall and 5-4 in a logjammed SEC race right now. We’re getting better every series. This team reminds me a lot of the Kentucky basketball team. A lot of youth who are ultra talented and starting to hit their stride. Can we win on the road? We’ll get tested at Tennessee this weekend. UT has really improved. Will have a lot more thoughts on baseball on Wednesday morning. One thing I will say right now though is that Dansby Swanson, our sophomore second baseman is phenomenal. He looks like he could be SEC player of the year and could help lead us to some serious June baseball with plenty of bats around him and stellar pitching. Our defense needs to keep improving. Need to tighten up in the outfield and the infield. But there were good signs with our bats on Saturday and Sunday and our shortstop Vinnie Conde is playing excellent baseball. Vinnie is a highly clutch player for us. Excellent shortstop and I love Vinnie up at the plate with the ducks on the pond. Really liking what I’m seeing out of third baseman Xavier Turner’s bat now. Xavier is getting it going. Zander Wiel has an excellent bat, just needs to get out of a mini slump. Freshman Brian Reynolds has an excellent bat; needs to keep improving in the field. Carson Fulmer is maybe the best pitcher in the country. Would like to see Tyler Beede turn it around on Friday Nights and get back to being Tyler.
Swanson and John Norwood hit blasts with Swanson hitting his on Saturday in a 9-3 victory and John hitting his yesterday in a 6-2 win. Dansby hit his in the left corner over the outfield. “I thought it was in Corbs’ office,” Swanson said. Dansby’s was a solo shot and John’s yesterday was a two run blast. Like to see us hitting for power. We’re hitting more doubles too. Dave Price and Sonny Gray are opening day starters for the Rays and A’s respectively. Both teams with high aspirations for this season. Both will contend for the World series. Have my predictions on my regular blog. Will have full report on Dave and Sonny on Wednesday. Also, Pedro in action today for the Bucs as they host the Chicago Cubs. The Rays host Toronto this afternoon and A’s host the Indians tonight. The Baltimore Orioles open their season hosting the Bosox. Ryan Flaherty could be their starting second baseman. Mike Minor ius hurt, but should be available to start for the Braves in mid April.