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Baseball vs. Ole Miss Preview
3/16/2006
Vanderbilt (11-6, 0-0 SEC)
vs. Ole Miss (11-6, 0-0 SEC)
Friday, March 17 * 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 18 * 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 19 * 1:30 p.m.
Swayze Field (3,500)
Series History
vs. Mississippi: The Rebels lead 50-41-2 all-time in a series that dates back to 1900.
Last Two Years
April 3, 2005 Vanderbilt 7, Ole Miss 2 Nashville
April 2, 2005 Vanderbilt 7, Ole Miss 4 Nashville
April 1, 2005 Ole Miss 6, Vanderbilt 2 Nashville
March 21, 2004 Ole Miss 3, Vanderbilt 1 Oxford
March 20, 2004 Ole Miss 6, Vanderbilt 5 Oxford
March 19, 2004 Ole Miss 5, Vanderbilt 4 Oxford
Polls (CB- Collegiate Baseball) (BA- Baseball America) (NCBWA- Writers Poll)
Neither team is ranked this week.
The Coaches
VU’s Tim Corbin is 117-74 in his fourth season as head coach.
UM’s Mike Bianco is 209-116-1 in his sixth season in Oxford.
Radio/TV
Teamline will provide the broadcast (Chris Lee, play-by-play)
The phone number to dial is 1-800-846-4700/Passcode: 0668.
What’s On Tap
Vanderbilt takes its five game winning streak on the road this weekend, and will face Ole Miss in the Southeastern Conference season opener at Swayze Field. The teams will open the three-game set tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m., and will play at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Scouting Ole Miss
Ole Miss is 11-6 on the year after losing two of three to UCLA in Los Angeles over the weekend. The Rebels bounced back with a 10-8 win over Arkansas State on Tuesday. The Rebels are coming off one of the best years in recent history, finishing with a 48-20 record and NCAA Super Regional Appearance.
First baseman C.J. Ketchum leads the team with a .409 batting average, while catcher Justin Brashear is the top power source with four homers on the year. As a team, Ole Miss is batting .313 with 13 homers and 124 runs scored in 17 games (7.3 per game).
The Rebels starting rotation for the weekend is southpaw Tommy Baumgardner (2-2, 3.80 ERA) on Friday and a pair of righthanders Cody Satterwhite (3-0, 3.05 ERA) and Lance Lynn (1-1, 4.15 ERA) on Saturday and Sunday. UM has a 3.34 team ERA with 134 strikeouts and 58 walks in 151.0 innings.
Offense Gets On Track
The Vanderbilt offense has been getting hot over the last 10 games. The Dores did not have a home run over the first seven games of the year, but since that time have belted 10, including at least one in the last four contests. As a team in the last 10 games, VU is batting .338 with 10 homers and 76 runs scored with 10 or more hits in the last five games.
The offense is a young one featuring seven freshmen or sophomores and a junior college transfer.
Flaherty Flares Up
One of the newcomers, freshman Ryan Flaherty has led the way in the offense’s awakening over the last two weeks. He played a huge role in the series win over Brown last weekend. The Deering, Maine, product was 6-for-10 with two doubles, a triple, homer, six RBI and six runs scored in four games last week. He had the best game of his young career with a 3-for-3 day with a single, double and triple, two RBI and three runs scored in Saturday’s win over Brown. Flaherty then went 2-for-4 with a homer the next day, including a clutch two-out RBI single in the ninth that tied the game and sent it into extra innings. In his last nine games, he is 12-for-28 (.429) with three doubles, a triple, homer and eight RBI.
Butler Recaps
Butler 010 100 000 – 2 7 2
Vanderbilt 000 032 12x – 8 10 0
March 15- Vanderbilt rallied from a 2-0 deficit with a three-run fifth and went on to defeat Butler 8-2 in baseball action Wednesday afternoon at Hawkins Field.
Vanderbilt trailed 2-0 in the fifth before taking advantage of two Butler fielding miscues to score three runs in the frame. The key hit was Shea Robin’s RBI double that tied the game at 2-2.
The Commodores added two more runs in the sixth on leftfielder Matt Meingasner’s single to leftfield. They went on to add a run in the seventh on a RBI double by Brian Hernandez and two more in the eighth on a solo homer by Dominic de la Osa and a RBI single by Adam Cronk.
Freshman pitcher Brett Jacobson (1-0) went six innings in his first collegiate start and was impressive as he gave up two runs on four hits with nine strikeouts and just one walk.
Two other freshmen hurlers, Josh Zeid and Nick Christiani also fared well with three shutout innings combined. Zeid struck out four, while Christiani fanned two in an inning of work. The freshmen trio combined to strike out 15 in the contest.
Butler 240 000 000 -6 8 1
Vanderbilt 200 (11)10 00x -14 15 1
March 14- Vanderbilt used an 11-run fourth inning to rally from a 6-2 deficit and defeat Butler 14-6 in baseball action Tuesday afternoon at Hawkins Field.
Shea Robin’s RBI single started the scoring barrage in the fourth with David Macias then following with a RBI double. Pedro Alvarez proceeded to launch a three-run homer to right-center, his second round-tripper in as many games. Dominic de la Osa and Ryan Davis added RBI singles before Robin capped the scoring with a grand-slam homer over the leftfield wall.
Ty Davis (4-2) came on in relief in the third inning and stabilized the game with five innings of two-hit scoreless relief.
After the 11-run fourth, the Commodores added another run in the fifth on de la Osa’s RBI single to right. The sophomore shortstop finished the day 3-for-4 with four RBI, while Shea Robin also aided the attack with a 3-for-4 showing and a career high five RBI.
Casey Weathers pitched the final two innings of the game and struck out five with only a walk in his second appearance of the year.
David Price Named National Pitcher Of The Week
Sophomore lefthander David Price was named the National Pitcher of the Week by Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association earlier this week.
In addition, Price was also named SEC Pitcher of the Week, marking the first time he has received the weekly award.
Price was dominant in his outing against Brown on Friday night, recording a career-best 15 strikeouts in just seven innings. The Murfreesboro product struck out six of the first nine batters and had a no-hitter through 3.2 innings of work against the Bears. After giving up the hit in the fourth, the next five outs came via strikeout. He allowed one run on four hits with just one walk and left after seven innings with a 7-1 lead.
With this week’s NCBWA honor, Price automatically is named to the watch list for Roger Clemens Award, given to the national collegiate pitcher of the year, sponsored by the Greater Houston Baseball Organization.
Commodore Tidbits
Vanderbilt is 8-2 in its last 10 games and carries a season high five-game winning streak into the weekend ? the Commodores had three straight 16-hit games in the series against Brown, and a 15 hit and 10 hit day against Butler? Freshmen Ryan Flaherty and Pedro Alvarez both recorded their first collegiate homers against Brown on Sunday ? Alvarez then hit his second homer of the year against Butler on Tuesday … Sophomore Brad French recorded his first collegiate round-tripper on Sunday ? Alvarez walked 10 times in four games last week and now leads the team with 21 walks in 16 games this year ? Sophomore centerfielder David Macias has been the sparkplug in the Commodores recent offensive streak (15-for-40, .375 avg) with a .444 on base percentage in the last 10 games ? Sophomore second baseman Alex Feinberg returned to the lineup after missing nine games due to a shoulder injury ? he started in all four games last week and was 6-for-15 (.400) with three runs scored ? he was the catalyst in the Commodores come from behind win on Sunday, starting the Commodore two-out rally in the bottom of the ninth with a base hit with two strikes ? Sophomore southpaw Cameron Betourne pitched eight scoreless innings in two games of relief work ? he gave up just three hits while striking out six ? freshman reliever Nick Christiani is becoming one of the top guys to close out games for the Commodores ? he picked up the save in the Friday win over Brown and then earned the win in the Sunday finale ? Christiani struck out six and allowed just two hits in 4.2 innings of scoreless work on the week ? Junior college transfer Casey Weathers made his first Vanderbilt appearance on Saturday and pitched an inning of hitless relief with two strikeouts.
On Deck
The Commodores will return home for a single game against in-town foe Belmont on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Hawkins Field. Vandy will then host Auburn in a three-game series next weekend. Gametimes for that series is 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Saturday game will be broadcast on CSS with Joe Fisher and Willy Daunic calling the action.
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