May 3, 2007
COMMODORE GAMEDAY CENTRAL
No. 1 Vanderbilt (39-8, 15-6 SEC) vs. Georgia (18-28, 7-14 SEC) at Foley Field (3,291)
Tentative Weekend Schedule:
Friday, May 4 at 5 p.m. CT (TV: None; Radio: 560 AM)
David Price (8-0, 2.69 ERA) vs. Stephen Dodson (4-4, 2.00)
Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
Saturday, May 5 at 1 p.m. CT (TV: None; Radio: 560 AM)
Mike Minor (7-0, 2.41 ERA) vs. Nathan Moreau (3-2 5.37)
Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
Sunday, May 6 at 2 p.m. CT (TV: CSS; Radio: 560 AM)
Cody Crowell (2-1, 4.02 ERA) vs. TBA
Live Stats | Free Online Radio | 560 AM
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STATISTICS AND MORE 
View Game Notes | VU Statistics | SEC Leaders Ticketing Q & A Part 2 | Read Georgia Preview
Series History vs. Georgia:
UGA leads 112-88. VU is 9-4 against the Bulldogs since the 2004 season.
Last Year
May 27, 2006 Vanderbilt 11, Georgia 1 (7 innings) Birmingham
May 27, 2006 Georgia 5, Vanderbilt 4 Birmingham
May 24, 2006 Vanderbilt 9, Georgia 4 Birmingham
April 16, 2006 Vanderbilt 11, Georgia 3 Nashville
April 15, 2006 Vanderbilt 5, Georgia 4 Nashville
April 14, 2006 Georgia 9, Vanderbilt 7 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. Georgia is not ranked.
The Coaches
VU’s Tim Corbin is 183-103 in his fifth season as head coach. He is 9-7 against Georgia. UGA’s Dave Perno is 201-154 in his sixth year in Athens. He is 10-9 against Vanderbilt.
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. “Voice of the Commodores” Joe Fisher will call all of the action for Vanderbilt this weekend. Sunday’s game will be televised regionally on CSS with Matt Stewart (play-by-play) and Jeff Dantzler (analysis) calling the action. Live stats will be provided by Georgia and the links can be found on vucommodores.com. Georgia will also have live video webcasts for the first two games of the series on Friday and Saturday. The webcast is shown via a pay basis and fans can access more info on www.georgiadogs.com.
What’s On Tap
No. 1 Vanderbilt opens May with the first of two consecutive Southeastern Conference road series this weekend against Georgia. Game one is set for a 5 p.m. CT start on Friday night with game two scheduled for a 1 p.m. CT first pitch on Saturday. The series finale will begin at 2 p.m. CT on Sunday and will be televised regionally by CSS.
Scouting Georgia
Georgia is 18-28 on the year and 7-14 in SEC play after dropping two of three to Kentucky in Lexington last weekend. The Bulldogs, a College World Series participant in 2006, rebounded with a 12-6 win over Wofford on Tuesday.
Outfielder Matt Olson leads the team with a .321 batting average to go with four homers and 35 RBI. Shortstop Gordon Beckham is the top power source with 12 homers, 17 doubles and 43 RBI.
Georgia is hitting .279 as a team with 36 homers and 233 runs scored in 46 games (5.07 per game).
The Bulldogs will throw a pair of sophomores on Friday and Saturday in righthander Stephen Dodson (4-4, 2.00 ERA) and lefthander Nathan Moreau (3-2, 5.37 ERA) respectively. Sunday’s starter is to be determined. Junior closer Joshua Fields is 1-6 on the year with four saves and a 5.29 ERA. He has 38 strikeouts and 22 walks in 32.1 innings entering the weekend
Georgia sports a 4.29 team ERA with 306 strikeouts and 191 walks in 423.2 innings.
Commodores Retain No. 1 National Ranking
With the series sweep over Florida last weekend, Vanderbilt remained the No. 1 team in the country in three polls and also regained the top spot in another.
Baseball America, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the ESPN/Sports Weekly Coaches Poll all had the Commodores ranked No. 1 for the fifth straight week, while Collegiate Baseball put VU back on top in its poll for the first time in six weeks.
The Commodores have been ranked No. 1 in at least one of the polls in 10 of the last 11 weeks.
The Commodores at 39-8 are having the best year 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 39 wins tie the 2004 squad for the most during the regular season. The 15 wins in the SEC is one short of the record 16 the team won in 2004 and 2006.
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.
Dominic de la Osa Named SEC Hitter Of The Week
After a torrid four-game stretch last week, the Southeastern Conference office tabbed Vanderbilt junior outfielder Dominic de la Osa as its Hitter of the Week on Monday.
De la Osa was 11-for-17 (.647) with five doubles, three homers, nine RBI and 11 runs scored in the four games. The Coral Gables, Fla., product had a 1.471 slugging percentage, a .684 on base percentage and also was a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen bases.
He went 9-for-14 (.643) with four doubles, two homers, seven RBI and nine runs scored as the catalyst for VU’s sweep of Florida over the weekend. De la Osa is now tied for the team lead in homers with 13 while batting at a .371 clip on the year. He leads the squad with a .354 average with six homers, eight doubles and 16 RBI in 20 SEC games as well.
Trio Of Commodores Named Golden Spikes Award Semifinalists
USA Baseball announced on Tuesday that third baseman Pedro Alvarez and pitchers David Price and Casey Weathers were named semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award.
Vanderbilt had the most players named to the 50-man list for an award that honors the nation’s premier amateur baseball player.
Alvarez, the 2006 consensus National Freshman of the Year, leads the Commodores with a .382 batting average to go along with 13 homers and 52 RBI. He is coming off a stellar week at the plate going 12-for-19 (.632) with three doubles, a homer and nine RBI in the last four games.
Price, one of five finalists for the award a year ago, is in the midst of his best season at Vanderbilt. The junior from Murfreesboro is 8-0 with a 2.69 ERA and has 135 strikeouts and 22 walks in 90.1 innings this season. He has tallied double-digit strikeouts in nine of his 12 starts this year and is currently second the nation in strikeouts per nine innings.
Weathers is tied for the team lead in wins with an 8-2 record to go with a 1.57 ERA. He leads the team with five saves in 22 relief appearances and has 51 strikeouts in 34.1 innings. The California native was recently named the top senior pitching prospect by Baseball America and is projected to be a first round pick in the amateur draft in June.
All three players were on the 2006 USA Baseball National Team that won a gold medal at the World University Championships last August.
The names of the 50 semi-finalists will now be forwarded to a voting body of 125 who will select the five finalists and the eventual 2007 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Winner.
This year will mark the 30th consecutive year that the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award has been presented to the nation’s premier amateur baseball player. The winner’s name will be announced on June 29, 2007, during the 2007 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Show presented by Major League Baseball.
Mike Minor Joins Alvarez and Price On Wallace Award List
Freshman southpaw pitcher Mike Minor joined Pedro Alvarez and David Price on the Brooks Wallace College Player of the Year Award Watch list this week. The award is presented annually to the nation’s top collegiate baseball player by the College Baseball Foundation and will be nationally televised on Fox Sports Network.
Price and Alvarez were named to the list of players to watch at the start of the year and Minor joined them as the number of players was updated and reduced to 112.
Minor has enjoyed a stellar freshman campaign posting a 7-0 record with a starter’s best 2.41 ERA. He began the year as a middle reliever and midweek starter but has since solidified his spot as the Saturday starter in SEC play. The Chapel Hill, Tenn., product is 4-0 with a 2.54 ERA in conference action and is a leading candidate for league freshman of the year honors.
Price Adds To New School Career Strikeout Record
The beat continues for David Price who notched 13 strikeouts against Florida last Friday to add to his school career strikeout record. He now has 382 in his career with three more 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.
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.
Weathers Named To Both Roger Clemens Award and Stopper of the Year Watch List
In the last two weeks senior closer Casey Weathers was named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Stopper of the Year Watch List and the Roger Clemens Award Watch List, an award that recognizes the top pitcher in college baseball.
Baseball America recently tabbed him as the top senior pitching prospect in college baseball and the No. 21 prospect overall.
He only made one relief appearance (inning of scoreless work) in the series sweep against Florida after a stellar weekend against Tennessee two weeks ago. Weathers picked up two clutch saves in the first two games against the Vols and a win in the series finale. In the Friday 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 one out 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.
Commodore Tidbits
Vanderbilt (39-8, 15-6 SEC) went 4-0 on the week and has won seven straight games, the longest active win streak in the SEC. The Commodore offense came alive in the midweek win over Tennessee Tech (12 runs) followed by three double-digit games in the series sweep of Florida (10, 17, 13) … The 40 runs scored on the weekend was the most ever for the Commodores in a three-game SEC series … The sweep also marked the first time VU has ever swept back-to-back three game conference series … With the win on Sunday, Vanderbilt picked up its 39th win of the season, the second best mark in school history (45 in 2004). The victory surpassed the 38 Vandy won a year ago … VU hit .429 as a team with 17 doubles, seven homers and 45 RBI in the four games … The 3-4-5 hitters (Dominic de la Osa, Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty) combined for 10 doubles, five homers and 26 RBI in the stretch … Pedro Alvarez had a big week, going 12-for-19 with three doubles, a homer, nine RBI and seven runs scored … Ryan Flaherty went 9-for-16 with two doubles, a triple, a homer and eight RBI … Ryan Davis made three starts and went 5-for-10 with four RBI … Andrew Giobbi filled in for an ailing Brad French at first and went 7-for-14 with two doubles and four RBI … Jonathan White was 5-for-11 with a homer and five runs scored in four games (three starts) … Parker Hanks was 4-for-6 with a double, homer and four RBI in four appearances off the bench … The pitching staff also fared well with a 4.25 ERA with 47 strikeouts and just six walks in 36.0 innings … Junior David Price continued his undefeated season with a 13 strikeout, one walk performance against Florida on Friday. He allowed just four hits while recording double digit strikeouts for the ninth time in 12 starts. The southpaw has 27 strikeouts and just one walk in his last 16 innings … Junior Ty Davis pulled out a yeoman’s effort in relief against Florida on Saturday, tying a career high with seven strikeouts in seven innings of four-hit work. He allowed three runs; only one earned, and gave up just one walk. The Texas native also struck out the side in the one inning of work he had against Tennessee Tech last Wednesday to finish with 10 strikeouts in eight innings last week … Cody Crowell made his first start of the season against Florida on Sunday and finished with a career high 11 strikeouts in the win … Vanderbilt cancelled its final scheduled midweek contest of the season against Middle Tennessee on May 8 as the team is on pace to fulfill its 56 game NCAA maximum without it. The Commodores have played 47 games with nine remaining SEC games on the slate (at Georgia, at Auburn and home vs. LSU) necessitating the MTSU contest to be cancelled.