March 28, 2008
 |
|
VANDERBILT GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Arkansas (15-9, 2-4 SEC) at No. 9 Vanderbilt (16-6, 3-3)
at Hawkins Field (3,000) in Nashville, Tenn.
Friday, March 28 at 6 p.m. CT (TV: None; Radio: 560 AM)
Cliff Springston (4-0, 2.73 ERA) vs. Mike Minor (3-1, 1.60 ERA) 
|
Saturday, March 29 at 3 p.m. CT (TV: FSN; Radio: 560 AM)
Kendall Korbal (0-3, 3.20 ERA) vs. Caleb Cotham (3-1, 3.03) 
|
Sunday, March 29 at 1 p.m. CT (TV: None; Radio: 560 AM)
TBA vs. Taylor Hill (2-1, 4.08) |
2008 STATISTICS
VU Game Notes | 2008 Statistics | SEC Standings & Leaders
Series History
Arkansas leads 25-11 all-time in a series that dates back to 1970. The Razorbacks have captured all 11 three-game series the teams have played dating back to 1994. Last season, UA won the three-game set in Fayetteville, with the Commodores taking the SEC Tournament Championship in May.
2007 Results
03/23/07: Arkansas 8, Vanderbilt 7 (Fayetteville)
03/24/07: Vanderbilt 6, Arkansas 3 (Fayetteville)
03/25/07: Arkansas 8, Vanderbilt 3 (Fayetteville)
05/27/07: Vanderbilt 7, Arkansas 4 (Birmingham)
Polls
Vanderbilt is ranked in all the national polls, with a high ranking of No. 9 by Rivals.com and Baseball America. The National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s Association ranks the Dores No. 11, with ESPN/Sports Weekly checking in at No. 13. Collegiate Baseball ranks VU No. 14. Arkansas is not ranked this week. All of the National Polls can be found on page 6 of the release.
The Coaches
VU’s Tim Corbin is 214-114 in his sixth season as head coach. He is 5-11 against the Razorbacks all-time. Arkansas’ Dave Van Horn is 216-119 in his sixth season in Fayetteville. He is 801-359 in 20 years overall. Van Horn is 11-5 against Vanderbilt all-time.
Radio/TV/Internet
All three games will be broadcast on WNSR 560 AM in Nashville. In addition you can catch the internet version of the broadcast via www.vucommodores.com. Joe Fisher will call the action. Saturday’s game will be televised regionally on Fox Sports Net. Dave Neal (play-by-play) and Larry Conley (analysis) will provide commentary. Check local listings to see if it is broadcast in your area. Live stats can also be accessed through Vanderbilt Athletics official website.
What’s On Tap
Vanderbilt hosts Southeastern Conference Western Division foe Arkansas in a three-game series this weekend at Hawkins Field. It will be a rematch between the schools that played in the SEC Tournament Championship game last year in Hoover, Ala. Friday’s first pitch is set for 6 p.m. with a 3 p.m. start on Saturday and a 1 p.m. start on Sunday. Saturday’s game will be televised regionally by Fox Sports Net in their first SEC Game of the Week this year.
Scouting Arkansas
Arkansas enters the weekend having lost six of its last nine games, including two of three to LSU in Baton Rouge last weekend. The Razorbacks split a pair of games with Centenary in midweek action and are 15-9 overall and 2-4 in league play.
Centerfielder Brett Eibner leads the team with a .333 batting average to go with three doubles and 23 RBI. Infielder/designated hitter Aaron Murphree is the top power source with 13 homers and 33 RBI to go with a .325 batting average. That success has yet to translate into SEC play as he is hitting .130 with a homer and five RBI in six contests. As a team, Arkansas is hitting .295 with 41 homers and 191 runs scored (7.95 per game).
Junior left-hander Cliff Springston (4-0, 2.73 ERA) will start for the Razorbacks on Friday with freshman right-hander Kendall Korbal (0-3, 3.20 ERA) scheduled to go on Saturday. Sunday’s starter is to be determined. As a team UA has a 4.48 ERA with 178 strikeouts and 99 walks in 213.0 innings.
Freshmen Relievers Shine On Mound
This season Vanderbilt is relying on several redshirt and true freshman on the mound, with Russell Brewer and Chase Reid excelling out of the bullpen.
Brewer, a redshirt freshman, has been a consistent strike thrower out of the bullpen with 19 strikeouts and four walks in 16.0 innings. He threw three scoreless innings of relief against Middle Tennessee on Wednesday and tied a career high with five strikeouts. He is 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA entering the weekend.
True freshman Chase Reid has not allowed an earned run in six relief outings on the year and enters the weekend with a 2-0 record. The Southlake, Texas native has 17 strikeouts and eight walks in 14.2 innings and forms a solid duo with Brewer out of the pen.
Minor Takes To Ace Role
Sophomore left-hander Mike Minor has made a nice transition into the Friday night starter role that was inhabited by 2007 Player of the Year David Price a year ago.
Minor heads into Friday’s game with a 3-1 record and a 1.60 ERA. He has 43 strikeouts and just eight walks in 39.1 innings pitched (Leads SEC) on the year. Last Friday against Alabama, Minor struck out a career high 12 batters in a complete game 2-1 win over the Crimson Tide. He has recorded a quality start in all five starts on the year and is just an out from recording three straight complete games. He was an out away from pitching a complete game shutout against Illinois-Chicago on March 6. Minor allowed a two-run double and completed the game in a 2-1 loss. He threw 8.2 innings against South Carolina and struck out 10 with a walk in a no-decision on March 14.
The Chapel Hill, Tenn., native went 9-1 with a 3.09 ERA with 88 strikeouts and 19 walks in 90.1 innings en route to Freshman All-American honors in 2007. He was named the SEC Freshman of the Year by sebaseball.com and also played on Team USA, finishing with a team best five wins and 1.64 ERA.
He is on the initial Roger Clemens Award Watch List, an award that David Price won in 2007.
Casali’s Walk-Off Homer In 12th Leads Dores Past Middle Tennessee
Freshman Curt Casali’s two-out two-run homer in the 12th inning lifted Vanderbilt to a 12-10 win over Middle Tennessee Wednesday night at Hawkins Field.
Ryan Flaherty walked with two outs in the 12th and Curt Casali stretched MTSU’s Chad Coley out to a 3-1 count before belting a two-run homer to left-center to end the game.
The Commodores trailed 10-8 in the bottom of the eighth when Dominic de la Osa tied the game with a two-run homer to left-center. It was his fourth homer of the season, tying him with Flaherty and David Macias for the team lead.
The teams had scoring opportunities in the latter stages and in extra innings but could not convert until Casali’s homer in the 12th.
The Blue Raiders best opportunity to regain the lead came in the 10th when Doug Birkofer was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a single by Nathan Hines. Commodore reliever Russell Brewer got out of his own jam, striking out the next three batters to end the inning.
MTSU got on the board in the first inning on a sacrifice fly RBI by Rawley Bishop.
Vanderbilt put up three runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-1 lead. Aaron Westlake and Alex Feinberg had RBI singles and Steven Liddle added a sacrifice fly RBI.
The Blue Raiders took advantage of two Vanderbilt errors to plate two unearned runs in the second to tie the game.
Middle Tennessee tallied five runs in the fifth to take an 8-3 lead. Bishop and Grant Box had RBI singles and Blake McDade added a two-run single to lead the charge.
VU cut into the lead with three runs in the bottom half to make it 8-6. Liddle had a RBI single, Westlake scored on a balk with the bases loaded and Jonathan White added a RBI groundout for the third run.
The Commodores scored another run on a balk in the sixth to cut the lead to one, but the Blue Raiders responded with two runs in the seventh to push it back up to 10-7.
Liddle doubled in the seventh, his third hit of the night, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a RBI groundout by Brad French to make it 10-8.
Taylor Hill pitched a scoreless 12th to pick up the win to move to 2-1 on the year, while Chad Coley took the loss to drop to 0-1.
Brian Harris had three hits to join Liddle as the night’s leader, with David Macias and Aaron Westlake added two hits each.
Commodore Tidbits
Vanderbilt is 3-2 in its last five games and are 16-6 overall and 3-3 in league play … The Commodores string of nine straight Southeastern Conference series wins was snapped against Alabama over the weekend. VU’s last SEC series loss was at Arkansas a year ago this weekend (March 23-25) … The losses on Saturday and Sunday to the Crimson Tide marked just the second time VU has lost back-to-back games over the last two seasons … Offensively, Vanderbilt is hitting .239 with eight homers and 25 RBI in the last five games … In the three game series against UA, Vanderbilt hit just .202 as a team with 26 strikeouts and just seven walks … Outfielder David Macias, who came in with two career homers in his four-year career, hit three of the four homers on the week. He was 4-for-11 (.364) against the Crimson Tide with three homers and five RBI. He had an 18 game hitting streak snapped against Belmont on Tuesday … Shortstop Ryan Flaherty was 6-for-15 (.400) on the week with a double, homer and three RBI … The pitching staff had a 4.76 ERA with 41 strikeouts and 13 walks in four games last week … Mike Minor struck out a career high 12 batters in a nine-inning complete game effort in leading Vanderbilt to a 2-1 win over Alabama Friday night in Tuscaloosa. Minor threw the lone complete game win in the SEC over the weekend and limited the Crimson Tide to just one unearned run on eight hits with just one walk to move to 3-1 on the year. He leads the conference in innings pitched (39.1) and complete games (2) while also sporting a 1.60 ERA … Richie Goodenow made his first ever Commodore appearance against Lipscomb in relief last Wednesday and pitched an inning of scoreless relief. He walked two, had a wild pitch and struck out the side to pick up the win … Chase Reid pitched 0.2 innings of scoreless relief against Alabama and 1.2 against Middle Tennessee. He has not given up an earned run in 14.2 innings this season
The 200-Hit Club
Coming into the season Dominic de la Osa was the lone active Commodore in the 200 hit club. Alex Feinberg and Ryan Flaherty have joined him on the exclusive list with David Macias and Pedro Alvarez not far behind. De la Osa now has 246 hits in his four-year career, good for seventh on the all-time list. Feinberg has 228 in his four years and is currently 10th, while Flaherty has 211 in just his third year tying him for 17th best in school history. Macias is just six hits away from joining them with 194, while the injured Alvarez is 16 short with 184.
Pedro Alvarez Out
Junior third baseman Pedro Alvarez will be sidelined indefinitely with a hand injury. The National Player of the Year candidate and two-time first-team All-American has a broken bone in his hand that will force him out of action for a minimum of six weeks. He had successful surgery on Feb. 28.
Alvarez suffered the injury in his first at-bat against Oregon State in the season opener and was held out of the following two games against Arizona State and Miami (Ohio).
The New York City native is considered the top junior professional prospect by Baseball America and is on the initial Golden Spikes and Brooks Wallace Award Watch Lists. He has led the USA Baseball National Team in hitting over the last two summers.
Alvarez entered the year with a career .359 batting average to go with 40 homers, 36 doubles and 132 RBI. His 40 homers is sixth all-time in school history and nine away from tying Scotti Madison’s mark of 49 set in four seasons from 1977-80.
Alvarez is expected to be ready for action sometime in the first two weeks of April.
Commodores Picked To Finish First in SEC (East) By Coaches
Vanderbilt is predicted to repeat as the 2008 Southeastern Conference baseball champions, as voted by the league’s 12 baseball coaches in the 17th annual preseason SEC poll.
The Commodores, ranked as high as No. 3 nationally in the preseason polls, seek to capture their fifth SEC Championship, having also won titles in 1973, 1974, 1980 and 2007. Vanderbilt returns eight position starters and four pitchers from their 2007 squad which also won the SEC Tournament and earned the National No. 1 Seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Since 1996, the SEC has named a regular season champion as well as a tournament champion. Prior to 1996, the tournament champion was considered the SEC Champion.