March 1, 2007
No. 1 Vanderbilt (11-0)
vs. Xavier (1-7)
at Hawkins Field (2,027)
Friday, March 2 – 4 p.m. CT
Saturday, March 3 – 2 p.m. CT
Sunday, March 4 – 1 p.m. CT
Series History
vs. Xavier: Xavier leads 2-0. Both games were played in tournaments in Florida.
All-Time Results
March 2, 1996 Xavier 3, Vanderbilt 2 Jacksonville, Fla.
March 9, 1995 Xavier 22, Vanderbilt 8 DeLand, Fla.
Polls
Vanderbilt is ranked No. 1 in both Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association polls. The Commodores are ranked No. 3 in Baseball America and by Rivals.com.
All of the National Polls can be found on page 6 of the release.
The Coaches
VU’s Tim Corbin is 154-95 in his fifth season as head coach.
Xavier’s Scott Googins is 20-44 in his second year as head coach.
Radio/TV/Internet
All of the games can be heard free via the internet through Yahoo and can be accessed using the following web page: http://vucommodores.collegesports.com/sports/m-basebl/radio-tv-internet.html. Eric Jones will call all of the action for the Commodores heading into SEC play. The games will also be webcast and can be watched for free via www.vucommodores.com. Live stats via Gametracker can also be accessed through the website.
Ticket Info
Season tickets are sold out, but fans can join the newly created On-Deck Circle, which offers priority ticket waiting and other special benefits (for more info click on vucommodores.com). In non-conference play, single game reserved tickets are $5 for adult, and $3 for youth (17 and under). General admission tickets will be made available for $3 once reserved tickets are sold out on the day of the game.
What’s On Tap
No. 1 Vanderbilt closes out its 11-game home stand this weekend with a three-game series against Xavier starting on Friday at 4 p.m. at Hawkins Field. Saturday’s contest is set for a 2 p.m. start, while Sunday’s game is at 1 p.m.
Scouting Xavier
Xavier is 1-7 on the year under second year head coach Scott Googins. The Musketeers started the year 0-6 before picking up a 14-9 win over Oakland in the first game of a doubleheader in Lexington on Tuesday. They then lost the nightcap to Kentucky by a 6-2 count.
Offensively, utility man Jordan Wolf leads the team with a .357 batting average to go along with a homer and five RBI. As a team, XU is hitting .234 with 63 strikeouts and 17 walks in eight games.
The Muskeeter rotation for the weekend will be junior righthander Michael Lucas (0-0, 4.91 ERA) on Friday and senior righty Bill Konecy (0-1, 1.50 ERA) on Saturday. The starter for the series finale on Sunday is to be determined.
Commodores Take No. 1 Ranking Into Second Week
The Vanderbilt baseball program achieved a historic milestone on Feb. 19 as Collegiate Baseball newspaper ranked the Commodores No. 1 in its weekly a poll, a first ever in baseball. This week saw no change as Vanderbilt sat atop the rankings for a second straight week.
The publication had VU ranked No. 3 on Feb. 12, besting the previous high of No. 6 set in March of 1973.
The baseball ranking joins women’s basketball and women’s golf as the only NCAA sports to achieve a No. 1 ranking at Vanderbilt. The 1993 women’s hoops squad was ranked No. 1 by the AP for six weeks, including the final regular season poll prior to postseason play. The women’s golf team was ranked No. 1 for a time in 2004.
Several teams have achieved a No. 2 ranking including menÃ-s basketball, bowling and men’s and women’s tennis.
Minor Outstanding In Win Over Austin Peay
Freshman southpaw Mike Minor is staking a claim for a spot in the starting rotation following a stellar performance in the Commodores 8-0 win over Austin Peay on Tuesday. The Lewisburg, Tenn., native struck out eight and walked just one in eight innings of three-hit shutout baseball against the Governors. He picked up his first collegiate win and now sports a team starter best 1.84 ERA to go along with 18 strikeouts and only three walks in 14.2 innings this season.
Commodores Out To Fast Start For Second Time In Three Years
With Tuesday’s win over Austin Peay, Vanderbilt moved to 11-0 on the year and is now one win away from matching the best start in school history. VU went 12-0 to open the 2005 season and before that, the previous best was a 10-0 start in 1998. Since Tim Corbin took over, the Commodores have gone 6-4 (2003), 9-1 (2004), 10-0 (2005), 5-5 (2006) and 10-0 (2006) in the first 10 games of the season.
Commodore Tidbits
The team won two one-run games last week, including a ninth-inning rally against Boston College Sunday afternoon … The team has trailed in seven of 11 games this year … The team hit .356 for the week with six homers, seven doubles and 42 runs scored … The pitching staff sported a 4.50 ERA with 50 strikeouts and 10 walks in 36.0 innings. Sophomore Ryan Flaherty led the offensive attack going 8-for-16 with two homers, a double, six runs scored and seven RBI. He hit a two-run walk-off homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lift VU to a 7-6 win over Boston College Sunday afternoon … After a slow start to the season Dominic de la Osa is heating up. He opened the year 1-for-14 and a .071 batting average. Last week he went 8-for-16 with two homers, four RBI and five runs scored to bump his average up to .314. He carries a seven game hitting streak into this week … Pedro Alvarez had four hits on Tuesday to bump his season average to a team best .458. He had two doubles, a triple and a single and had two chances to complete the cycle but came up short against APSU … Two players, Parker Hanks and Kurt Lipton made the most of their opportunity to play. Hanks was 4-for-7 (.571) with two doubles and three RBI in three games, including a start against Boston College. Lipton played in four games, with three starts and went 5-for-10 with two runs scored … Nick Christiani had the most successful start on the week, pitching six innings of shutout ball against Ball State last Saturday. He allowed four hits and struck out a career high nine to move to 2-0 … Ace David Price recorded another double digit strikeout performance in a 4-3 win over Pittsburgh on Friday. He allowed three runs on five hits with 10 strikeouts in 5.2 innings to improve to 2-0 on the year … Closer Casey Weathers struck out all nine batters he faced in three innings of relief (vs. Ohio (2/18), vs. Lipscomb (2/21) and vs. Pittsburgh (2/22). His streak ended when he pitched a second inning against the Panthers when he gave up a hit. On the week he picked up a save against Pitt and a win against Boston College. Weathers has struck out 13 over 7.2 innings this year and has just given up two hits … Reliever Stephen Shao pitched a career high six innings against Boston College on Sunday. He kept the Eagles at bay after they had scored five runs through the first three innings on starter Brett Jacobson.
Commodore Baseball Gaining National Pub
This week saw the Commodore baseball team featured in a variety of different media outlets. ESPN.com has a feature on Tim Corbin and how he has raised expectations at Vanderbilt and both Baseball America and SEBaseball.com has feature stories on senior closer Casey Weathers. Another national publication is working on a feature on the success of athletics at Vanderbilt and that article should be published in the coming weeks.
Broadcast Info
Nearly every Vanderbilt home game will be available to watch for free online through All-Access. In addition, all 56 regular season games will be broadcast via the internet through Yahoo. For more information on that you can visit www.vucommodores.com. This season, ISP has joined forces with baseball flagship WNSR 560 AM to broadcast 44 regular season contests. Eric Jones will handle the play-by-play to start the season before handing off to Voice of the Commodores Joe Fisher once the men’s basketball season concludes.
Six Commodore games are currently scheduled to be televised this year. College Sports Southeast will broadcast four games, the April 21st game against Tennessee at 6 p.m., the April 29th game against Florida at 1 p.m. and the May 18th and 19th games games against LSU at 7 p.m. and noon CT respectively. Fox Sports South will broadcast the South Carolina game on March 31 at 3 p.m. The Sun Network will show the Florida contest on April 28 at 3 p.m.
