April 26, 2007
Gameday Ticket Availability:
Several hundred General Admission tickets remain available for all weekend games. Tickets for each game go on sale two hours prior to game time on that day. All Vanderbilt fans seeking tickets are encouraged to show up early on these days to get tickets. They will be sold on a first-come basis once the booth opens for sale two hours prior to first pitch.
COMMODORE GAMEDAY CENTRAL
No. 1 Vanderbilt (36-8, 12-6 SEC) vs. Florida (23-20, 10-8 SEC) at Hawkins Field (2,027)
Tentative Weekend Schedule:
Friday, April 27 at 7 p.m. CT (Radio: 560 AM)
David Price (7-0, 2.50 ERA) vs. Kyle Mullaney (2-0, 6.14)
| Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
Saturday, April 28 at 3 p.m. CT (TV: SUN; Radio: 560 AM)
Mike Minor (7-0, 2.00 ERA) vs. Bryan Augenstein (4-4, 5.96)
No Webcast Due to SUN Broadcast | Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
Sunday, April 29 at 1 p.m. CT (TV: CSS; Radio: 560 AM)
TBA vs. Billy Bullock (2-4, 4.56)
No Webcast Due to CSS Broadcast | Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
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STATISTICS AND NOTES 
View Game Notes | VU Statistics | SEC Leaders
Series History vs. Florida:
UF leads 113-55-1. The teams have split the last two series.
Last Two Series
April 2, 2006: Vanderbilt 16, Florida 2 Gainesville
April 1, 2006: Florida 6, Vanderbilt 4 Gainesville
March 31, 2006: Vanderbilt 6, Florida 0 Gainesville
May 22, 2005: Florida 6, Vanderbilt 3 Nashville
May 21, 2005: Florida 2, Vanderbilt 1 (13) Nashville
May 20, 2005: Florida 5, Vanderbilt 4 Nashville
Polls
Vanderbilt is ranked No. 1 by Baseball America, the Sports Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll, and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Poll. VU is ranked No. 2 by Collegiate Baseball and Rivals.com. Florida is not ranked this week.
The Coaches
VU’s Tim Corbin is 180-103 in his fifth season as head coach. He is 7-7 against Florida. UF’s Pat McMahon is 225-133-1 in his sixth year in Gainesville and 578-307-1 in his 15th year overall.
Radio/TV/Internet
All of the 2007 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. In addition, the series will be broadcast locally in Nashville on WNSR 560 AM. Saturday’s game will be televised nationally on SUN Sports with Mick Hubert (play-by-play) and Nick Belmonte (analysis) calling the action. Sunday’s game will be televised regionally on CSS with Joe Fisher (play-by-play) and Willy Daunic (analysis) calling the action. Fisher will call the Friday and Saturday games on radio, with Eric Jones filling in on Sunday. Live stats via Gametracker can be found on the website as well. Check vucommodores.com for webcast information.
What’s On Tap
No. 1 Vanderbilt closes its seven-game home stand this weekend as SEC East rival Florida comes to town for a three-game set. The series begins Friday night at 7 p.m. and will continue on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. The Saturday game will be broadcast nationally on Sun Sports, while Sunday’s game will be televised regionally on CSS.
Scouting Florida
Florida is 23-20 overall and 10-8 in SEC play after taking two of three from Kentucky last weekend in Gainesville.
First baseman Matt LaPorta returned for his senior year and has delivered in a big way for the Gators as he leads the team with a .426 batting average to go along with 16 homers and 41 RBI. His .837 slugging percentage is tops in the league.
Florida is hitting .290 as a team with 52 homers and 302 runs scored in 43 games (7.02 per game).
The Gators will throw an all righthander rotation this weekend: freshman Kyle Mullaney (2-0, 6.14 ERA) on Friday, junior Bryan Augenstein (4-4, 5.96 ERA) on Saturday and freshman Billy Bullock (2-4, 4.56 ERA) on Sunday. Southpaw David Hurst (2-0, 2.36 ERA) is the closer with five saves and 22 strikeouts and 10 walks in 34.1 innings.
Florida sports a 5.24 team ERA with 254 strikeouts and 150 walks in 385.0 innings.
Commodores Retain No. 1 National Ranking
With the series sweep over Tennessee last weekend, Vanderbilt remained the No. 1 team in the country in three of the five major polls.
The Commodores have been ranked No. 1 in at least one of the polls in nine of the last 10 weeks.
The Commodores at 36-8 are off to the best start in school history and the team’s 20-0 start was the best start of any sport at Vanderbilt. It bested the 17-0 start of the 1993 women’s basketball team.
The No. 1 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 Adds To New School Career Strikeout Record
With 14 strikeouts last Friday against Tennessee, David Price now has 369 in his career with at least four regular season starts remaining. With nine strikeouts against Kentucky on April 13, the junior lefthander broke a 35-year old school record with 355 career strikeouts. With his fifth strikeout against the Wildcats, he broke Mike Willis’ school record of 350 set from 1969-72. Of note, Willis achieved the mark in four years at Vanderbilt, compared to Price in three. The fellow southpaw went on to a five year career in the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays (1977-81) and finished with a 7-21 record and 15 saves with a 4.59 ERA.
Casey Weathers Named To Both Roger Clemens Award and Stopper of the Year Watch List
Last week senior closer Casey Weathers was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Stopper of the Year Watch List. This week he was added to the Roger Clemens Award Watch List, an award that recognizes the top pitcher in college baseball. Last week Baseball America tabbed him as the top senior pitching prospect in college baseball and the No. 21 prospect overall.
He had a stellar weekend against Tennessee, picking up two clutch saves in the first two games, and a win in the series finale. In Friday’s game he came on in the ninth with no outs and the tying runs on base and retired the side. In Saturday’s game he came on with with outs in the eighth and the tying run at second base. He struck out a batter to end that threat and then retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his second save of the weekend. He then came on in relief in the ninth on Sunday with the go ahead run on first and induced a groundout and struck out two to end the threat.
He struck out five with two walks in 3.1 innings shutout innings on the week and now leads the team in wins with an 8-2 record and also leads the team in saves with five.
At the end the regular season, the Division I leader in saves and four other relief pitching standouts will be selected as the Stopper of the Year Award’s finalists. These finalists will be released on Wednesday, May 30, just prior to the beginning of NCAA regional play.
Commodore Tidbits
Vanderbilt (36-8, 12-6 SEC) have won four of its last five games heading into the weekend … The Dores have now won four of the last five series against the Vols including sweeps in 2003 and 2007. Head coach Tim Corbin is 11-4 against UT …. Vanderbilt has won its last four SEC series this season and five of six overall. It is off to its best start ever in conference play and are four wins shy of tying the school record of 16 SEC wins … The sweep was the first of the conference season and first SEC one since sweeping Auburn last March at Hawkins Field … The Commodores hit .296 on the week with three homers, eight doubles and 25 runs scored in five games … Alex Feinberg led the way with a 7-for-18 (.389) showing with three RBI … Dominic de la Osa also was 7-for-18 with two homers, six RBI and four runs scored. He now has 10 homers this season, a new career high besting the nine he hit a year ago … Shea Robin was 6-for-16 (.375) in five games with two doubles and three runs scored … The pitching staff had a 5.23 ERA over the week with 41 strikeouts and 14 walks in 43.0 innings. The numbers were much stronger during the UT series with a 3.33 ERA with 31 strikeouts and nine walks in 27.0 innings … David Price once again was spectacular Friday night, carrying a perfect game into the seventh inning before giving up a bloop single with two outs. He finished with 14 strikeouts in eight innings of five-hit work, with a run coming in the ninth. It was the eighth double digit strikeout game in 11 starts this season. He now has 369 strikeouts in his career and for the season he is 7-0 with a 2.84 ERA to go along with 122 strikeouts and 21 walks in 82.1 innings of work … Freshman Mike Minor continued his amazing run through SEC play with a six inning win over UT on Saturday. He gave up three runs on five hits and struck out four with two walks in moving to 4-0 in SEC play with a 1.71 ERA. Overall the Chapel Hill, Tenn., native is 7-0 with a starter’s best 2.00 ERA in 12 appearances including eight starts … Nick Christiani pitched in three games over the week and allowed only one run of his own on four hits in 6.2 innings with six strikeouts and two walks. He stabilized the Sunday game for the Commodores after coming on in the third inning, allowing just a run (solo homer) on two hits with four strikeouts and two walks in five innings … After this weekend’s action the Commodores will play six of its last nine games on the road in SEC play.
Record Watch
With 13 homers this year, Pedro Alvarez is now in a tie for ninth place on the school’s career homer list with 35. He needs one homer to move past Greg Smith into ninth place on the all-time list. Alvarez needs 14 more round-trippers to tie Scotty Madison’s mark of 49 set from 1977-80.
Dominic de la Osa Heating Up
Junior outfielder Dominic de la Osa gained 10 pounds of muscle over the summer and it has paid off for him this season as he is having his best season in a Vanderbilt uniform. de la Osa converted from shortstop, where he played the majority of his first two seasons, to the outfield where he has been the everyday starter in right. In the last five games he has blasted three homers with two doubles and eight RBI and now has a career-high 11 round-trippers heading into this weekend. The Florida product enters the weekend second on the team with a .346 batting average to go with 11 homers (also second), 10 doubles and 32 RBI. He leads the team with 12 stolen bases and has a career high 18 walks this season as well.
Commodores Outlast Tennessee Tech 12-10
Vanderbilt blasted three homers in a four run fifth inning and withstood a late rally by Tennessee Tech to win 12-10 Wednesday evening at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores trailed 4-3 going into the bottom of the fifth when Dominic de la Osa led off with a homer to left-center, his 11th of the year. Pedro Alvarez followed with a homer to right-center, his 13th of the year to make it 5-4. Ryan Flaherty tripled to left and scored on an infield single by Shea Robin and Jonathan White then capped it off with a solo shot over the scoreboard in right-center to put VU ahead 7-4.
Flaherty added a two-run double in the sixth to extend the lead to 9-4. Parker Hanks hit a pinch-hit two-run homer in the seventh to extend the lead to 11-4.
Tech plated six runs on six hits in the eighth inning to cut the lead to just one at 11-10. Scott Dunham and Michael Roeder had RBI singles, Cory Wright added a two-run double and Thomas Nelson chipped in with a RBI double to lead the way.
VU added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a RBI groundout by Brian Harris to close out the scoring at 12-10.
Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty, Jonathan White and Ryan Davis each had three hits to lead the Vanderbilt 18 hit attack.
Tyler Rhoden (3-0) allowed a run on five hits in three innings of relief in the win, while Cody Crowell pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to record his second save of the season.
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first off of VU starter Brett Jacobson.
The Commodores got a run back in the bottom half on a RBI single by Dominic de la Osa.
Tech got the run back in the second on a solo homer by Michael Roeder in the second to make it 3-1. Vandy cut it to 3-2 in the bottom half on a RBI single by Andrew Giobbi that scored Shea Robin who walked and stole second.
They tied it in the third on a RBI single by Pedro Alvarez that scored Dominic de la Osa who was hit by a pitch and stole second.