Josh Fields saved each of Georgia’s wins over the weekend to lead the Dawgs to 4-2 (10 innings) and 12-10 victories.  Georgia (33-17-1, 19-7-1 SEC) now has a 4 game lead over both LSU (35-16-1, 15-11-1 SEC) and Vanderbilt (37-15. 15-11 SEC) heading into the last weekend of SEC play. 

LSU swept struggling Mississippi State (20-32, 7-20) to run their winning streak to 12 games.  Meanwhile, South Carolina (34-18, 13-14 SEC) dropped three to Arkansas (31-21, 13-13 SEC).  The GameCocks collapse appears to have left Georgia as the only sure bet to host a regional.  LSU seems to be in good standing with respect to earning a regional host.  Vanderbilt and Florida (30-20, 14-13) may be playing this weekend for a chance to earn a third SEC host bid.  Kentucky (38-14, 14-13) and Alabama (30-22, 14-13) also harbor hosting hopes, with Alabama unranked but traveling to Georgia for a road set that could significantly improve their profile. 

Friday SEC Recap

Saturday SEC Recap

Sunday SEC Recap

Vandy Takes Game One from UGA

Despite a big 4 run inning from UGA in which they took a one run lead at 7-6, Georgia starter Trevor Holder and the UGA bullpen could not hold down Vanderbilt’s bats.  Dominic de la Osa (pictured)  and David Macias hit 2 run homeruns and every Vandy player rapped out a hit in a 13-7 shellacking.

Holder, who entered the game with a 2.84 ERA, gave up 10 ER in 6 innings and saw his ERA baloon one run to 3.84.  The strike zone was tight, often frustrating Vanderbilt’s Mikie Minor, who allowed 3 runs on a surprising 9 hits in just 5.1 innings.  There was question as to whether any pitcher would be able to get consistent outs in the game.

Vandy’s Russell Brewer (a swingman who shares closing duties with Brett Jacobsen) came in and answered that question, striking out 7 of the 10 batters he faced to pick up his 4th win.

On the day, Rich Poythress and Lyle Allen of UGA had 4 hits apiece.  Joey Lewis had three RBI, including 2 on a fifth inning homerun.  For Vanderbilt, the top three in the order (Macias, de la Osa and Alvarez, combined for 7 runs and 10 RBI on 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 HBP). 

The teams square off again today at 3 p.m. Eastern.  Vanderbilt is currently 2 games behind Georgia atop the SEC standings and can take over 1st place by percentage points with a clean sweep. Read the rest of this entry »

Vanderbilt sweeps Tennessee:

Knoxville – Dominic de la Osa (pictured) became Vanderbilt’s all-time hits and doubles leader with a pair of doubles on Sunday.  Vanderbilt swept the weekend despite a major home run surge by the Vols all weekend.  VU had solid pitching outings by Mikie Minor and Caleb Cotham, while Kentrell Davis impressed for Tennessee with a triple and two homers on Sunday.

• Friday – VU 8, UT 5
• Saturday – VU 9, UT 2
• Sunday – VU 10, UT 8

Georgia takes 2 of 3 from Ole Miss:

Athens – Georgia gave up a late Saturday lead to drop game two to Ole Miss; however, they stormed back on Sunday with a convincing 11-4 win behind home runs from Gordon Beckham, Lyle Allen, Matt Cerione and Michael Demperio. 

• Friday – UGA 5, OM 4
• Saturday – OM 9, UGA 4
• Sunday – UGA 11, OM 4

Read the rest of this entry »

Vanderbilt 8, Tennessee 5:
Ryan Flaherty launched a mammoth three run home run over the scoreboard in right center in the first inning, lifting Vanderbilt over Tennessee at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville.  The College Baseball Blog took in the action and provides this quick recap of the action.

Tim Corbin extended his dominance over arch rival to the east to a 13-5 record.  This was the first matchup between Corbin’s Dores against new Tennessee skipper Todd Raleigh.  The new coaching staff in orange has many ties to the Dores, with Corbin and Raleigh both Jack Leggett disciples.  Raleigh coached VU recruiting coordinator and first base coach Erik Bakich at East Carolina.  And while Corbin was an assistant at Clemson, both UT assistant Brad LeCroy and VU Director of Baseball Operations Mike Calitri were players (credit to Brandon Barca at VU for the research).  This has added a level of respect to a coaching staff rivalry where there was very quiet, but brutally clear animosity during the Rod Delmonico era.  If there are two teams in the SEC who have truly hated each other more than VU and UT over the last three years, I’m surprised a riot didn’t break out.  One can anticipate that the rivalry may turn more cordial in the future.  Read the rest of this entry »

Rivals.com division Rivals High released their first ever Top 100 High School Baseball Players this week.  The rankings (found here) are topped by Griffin, GA SS Tim Beckham (pictured left), a Southern Cal commit and probable top 5 pick in the upcoming draft.  Joining him at the top are Cooper City, FL 1B Eric Hosmer (Arizona State); Long Beach, CA OF Aaron Hicks (Southern Cal); Wentzville, MO P Tim Melville (uncommitted); and Santa Ana, CA P Gerrit Cole (UCLA).  The top five are widely speculated to all go pro after the 2008 MLB Draft. Read the rest of this entry »

In a game that was filled with drama that seemingly wouldn’t end, Vanderbilt outlasted South Carolina 4-3 in 13 innings and 4 hours and 14 minutes.  Leading the way was All-American Shortstop Ryan “Flash” Flaherty (5-6, 2R, 2RBI, BB).  Flaherty singled in his first three at bats and launched a game tying home run to center with two outs in the bottom of the 9th.  In the bottom of the 13th, with the bases loaded and one out, Flaherty bounced a single through the right side for the win.  Read the rest of this entry »

Redshirt Freshman Caleb Cotham was dominating, before tiring late against the Louisville Cardinals in a midweek Top 25 clash at Hawkins Field in Nashville. Cotham (7IP, 4ER, 7H, 1BB, 9K) used a heavy and hard fastball and a sweeping curve to handcuff the Cards, including recording the golden sombrero on UL star Chris Dominguez (1-4, 3K) in his first three ABs. Read the rest of this entry »

Preseason Player of the Year Pedro Alvarez of Vanderbilt suffered what was called a “slight arm injury” at some point after yesterday’s 8-1 win over Oregon State.

In today’s game between #3 Vanderbilt and #1 Arizona State will feature RS Sophomore Andrew Giobbi at 3rd base.

UPDATE: Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com reports that Pedro injured his arm during pregame warmups and that he is being held out for precautionary reasons. The injury is not considered serious. Read Kendall’s report, here.

GAME UPDATE: There’s not much to say other than the fact that Vandy’s array of new pitchers cannot find the plate and have made this game painful to watch. The highlights of the day have been the arcs of Brett Wallace’s MAMMOTH Grand Slam and his equally stuning 3 run homer. Read the rest of this entry »

Lance Lynn of Ole Miss picked upwhere David Price left off in 2007, representing the SEC as one of the nation’s most starters. Lynn struckout the first 8 batters en route to a 5IP, 2H, 12K performance in Ole Miss’ 8-1 win over Minnesota.

Meanwhile UGA won a slugfest over Arizona (raked #1 by some publications) after beating up preseason All-American Preston Guilmet. Josh Fields impressed with a HR and the big save. Fields is this correspondent’s 1st Team Preseason AA closer.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Vanderbilt Commodores used grit to knock off top seed Rice in the season opener at the Minute Maid Classic last year.  Facing two-time defending champ Oregon State at the ASU-Demarini Classic in today’s opener, they Flashed pure dominance from start to finish.

Sophomore Mikie Minor was nothing short of brilliant on the mound, throwing quickly and setting down OSU in the first five brisk innings.  In the first and second, he allowed baserunners (single and HBP), but picked each man off with his solid move to first base. 

On the offensive side, Vandy struck early and often.  A bases-loaded 2RBI single from All-American SS Ryan Flaherty gave Vandy an early lead and extended Flash’s SEC record hitting streak to 36 games, dating well back into last season.  Senior LF Parker Hanks (2-4) added a mammoth 2nd inning solo-shot to the highway beyond left field in the second.  Vandy would tack on additional runs in the 4th and 5 innings to hold a comfortable 5-0 lead at the halfway point. 
Read the rest of this entry »

A wedding in Delhi and a stunning workload have kept me from putting together my Vandy and SEC baseball previews (I’ll try to get them up this weekend), but there’s some great news out of Nashville: Vanderbilt will be streaming free webcasts of their games in the opening weekend tournament. You can watch by going to VUCommodores.com and going through a brief, free registration process that will give you access to the video streams of all home Vanderbilt games as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Baseball America has released their preseason top 25 list.  The full ranking is available here.

Leading the way are the UCLA Bruins in the top spot.  Arizona, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and North Carolina landed in spots 2 through 5, while Missouri, Oregon State, Michigan, ASU and Miami rounded out the top 10.