March 8, 2007
TENTATIVE WEEKEND SCHEDULE:
Friday, March 9 at 6 p.m. CT: David Price (3-0, 3.04 ERA) vs. Zach Peterson (0-1, 5.29 ERA) | Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
Saturday, March 10 at 2 p.m. CT: Nick Christiani (3-0, 2.70 ERA) vs. Ryan Zink (0-0, 7.36 ERA) | Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
Sunday, March 11 at 1 p.m. CT: Brett Jacobson (3-0, 2.57 ERA) vs. Joe Skinner (1-1, 8.71 ERA) / Steve Crnkovich (1-1, 2.12 ERA) | Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
No. 1 Vanderbilt (15-0) vs. Illinois-Chicago (4-5)
Friday, March 9 – 6 p.m.
Saturday, March 10 – 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 11 – 1 p.m.
Hawkins Field (2,027)
Series History
vs. Illinois-Chicago: Illinois-Chicago leads 2-1.
Series Results
March 6, 1995 Illinois-Chicago 5, Vanderbilt 0 Orlando, Fla.
March 10, 1994 Vanderbilt 13, Illinois-Chicago 4 Nashville
March 8, 1994 Illinois-Chicago 7, Vanderbilt 6 Nashville
Polls
Vanderbilt is ranked No. 1 in Collegiate Baseball, the Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll and by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers. The Commodores are ranked No. 2 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 158-95 in his fifth season as head coach. Illinois-Chicago’s Mike Dee is 273-185-1 in his ninth year as a 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. Both Friday’s and Saturday’s game can also be heard locally on 560 WNSR. In addition, the games will 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 non-conference weekend slate as Illinois-Chicago comes to town for a three-game set. The teams will play at 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Of Note: Friday’s game time was moved from a 4 p.m. start to 6 p.m. in order for fans to watch the men’s basketball team at the SEC tourney at 2:15.
Scouting Illinois-Chicago
Illinois-Chicago is 4-5 on the year after taking two of three against Tennessee last weekend in Knoxville. The Flames have won the Horizon League regular season crown the last five seasons and have made the NCAA tournament twice in that span (2002, 2005). Centerfielder Larry Gempp Jr. leads the team with a .432 batting average through nine games. UIC only has one homer on the year, by first baseman Brett Schaefer, and are hitting .262 as a team with 48 runs scored (5.33 per game). The Flames probable rotation for the weekend will be righthanders Zach Peterson (0-1, 5.29 ERA) on Friday and Ryan Zink (0-0, 7.36 ERA) on Saturday. Sunday’s starter is to be determined between southpaw Joe Skinner (1-1, 8.71 ERA) or righty Steve Crnkovich (1-1, 2.12 ERA).
Commodores Pick Up Another No. 1 Ranking
Vanderbilt baseball picked up another No. 1 national ranking this week as the first regular season USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll put the Commodores on top.
VU remained ranked No. 1 for the third straight week by Collegiate Baseball and by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA)
The USA Today poll, made up of 31 coaches from across the country, had Vanderbilt ranked No. 10 in its preseason poll. Baseball America and Rivals.com have the Commodores at No. 2 this week, moving up a spot in both listings.
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.
Price Picks Up Another National Pitcher of the Week Honor
In addition to the No. 1 ranking, Collegiate Baseball also tabbed junior lefthander David Price as one of its National Pitchers of the Week. He struck out 13 in a complete game effort against Xavier last Friday. Price gave up two runs on seven hits and walked just one in improving to 3-0 on the year. The Murfreesboro native has has now struck out 41 with six walks in 26 2/3 innings of work this season.
He was also named to the College Baseball Foundation’s Weekly Honor Roll for the second time this season.
Vanderbilt Hangs On For Tough Road Win Against Western Kentucky
Vanderbilt withstood a ninth inning rally by Western Kentucky to win 6-4 Tuesday evening at Nick Denes Field.
The Commodores took a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth before the Hilltoppers rallied and had the tying run at second base with two outs before Casey Weathers got Scott Kaskie to ground to first to end the game.
The Commodores jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first when Brian Harris and Pedro Alvarez both singled and scored on a double by Andrew Giobbi.
The Hilltoppers tied the game in the third when Scott Kaskie hit a two-run homer to left off of VU starter Mike Minor.
Those were the only runs Minor (2-0) would give up in the winning effort. He scattered seven hits over 5.2 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks.
The Commodores struck right back in the fourth to take the lead when Shea Robin walked with one out and scored on a RBI double by Dominic de la Osa to make it 3-2.
VU made it 5-2 in the sixth as Robin added a RBI single and Brad French notched a sacrifice fly RBI. They added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on another RBI single by Robin.
Ty Davis pitched 1.2 innings of one hit scoreless relief and Stephen Shao followed with 0.2 innings of hitless, scoreless relief in the eighth.
David Macias, Brian Harris, Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty and Shea Robin each had two hits on the day.
Commodores Out To Best Start In School History
With Tuesday’s win over Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt moved to 15-0 on the year extending its best start in school history. VU’s previous best start was 12-0 to open the 2005 season and before that 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 (2007) in the first 10 games of the season.
Commodore Tidbits
Vanderbilt continues its best start ever at 15-0 entering the weekend … The previous best start ever was a 12-0 start in 2005 … Starting pitching again was the key last week as starters went 8, 9, 5.2 and 7 innings in the four games … The team sported a 1.25 ERA with 39 strikeouts and seven walks in 36 innings with shutout performances in two of the four games … Offensively the team sported a .338 batting average with five homers, 12 doubles and 30 runs scored in four games … Freshman Mike Minor threw eight innings of three-hit shutout ball against Austin Peay last Tuesday with eight strikeouts and a walk in picking up his first career win … Junior ace David Price struck out 13 in a complete game win over Xavier last Friday. He walked only one while giving up two runs on seven hits … Brett Jacobson capped off the weekend with seven shutout innings against Xavier on Sunday. He allowed six hits with six strikeouts and a walk … Vandy only used four relievers (Cody Crowell, Ty Davis, Stephen Shao and Casey Weathers) who combined to pitch 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just one hit while striking out seven … The team has come from behind in nine of 15 games this season … VU is hitting .345 with two outs and has 52 two-out RBI (out of a possible 109 total) … Pedro Alvarez led the hitters in four games last week hitting 10-for-17 (.588) with three doubles, a triple, two homers, five RBI and eight runs scored. His slugging percentage was 1.235 and he is now batting .467 with seven homers and 17 RBI on the year … Brad French came alive on the week hitting 6-for-12 with his first homer of the season and five RBI … Ryan Flaherty was 6-for-14 (.429) with three doubles, while high school teammate Andrew Giobbi made the most of four starts, hitting the same 6-for-14 with two doubles, his first career homer and a team high seven RBI … Junior outfielder Parker Hanks received bad news with a injured foot (initially hurt on a foul ball) that will sideline him 4-6 weeks.
Record Watch
Two Vanderbilt records worth watching this season is the school’s career strikeout mark and the career homer mark. With 13 strikeouts against Xavier last Friday, David Price vaulted into third place on the career list with 288. He trails record holder Mike Willis by 62 strikeouts and second place Jeremy Sowers by 39. With seven homers this year, Pedro Alvarez moved into a tie with Jeff Martin for 10th on the homer list with 29.
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.