June 2, 2010
TV: None | Radio: 560 AM | Video, Audio & Live Stats | Notes
VUcommodores’ NCAA Tournament Blog | Twitter Updates
2 Seed Vanderbilt (41-17) vs. 3 Seed Illinois State (31-22)
Friday, June 4 – 1 p.m. CT/ 2 p.m. ET
NCAA Tournament
Louisville Regional
Jim Patterson Stadium (2,500)
Series History vs. Illinois State
Vanderbilt holds a 5-4 lead in a series that began in 1937. The Commodores captured a 9-2 decision the last time the teams met in the second game of the Music City Classic on March 6.
All-Time Series Results
March 6, 2010: Vanderbilt 9, Illinois State 2 (Nashville)
February 26, 2005: Vanderbilt 2, Illinois State 1 (Nashville)
1951: Illinois State 7, Vanderbilt 1 (Nashville)
1951: Illinois State 12, Vanderbilt 9 (Nashville)
1949: Vanderbilt 9, Illinois State 0 (Nashville)
1949: Illinois State 4, Vanderbilt 2 (Nashville)
1948: Vanderbilt 4, Illinois State 2 (Nashville)
1948: Vanderbilt 5, Illinois State 4 (Nashville)
1937: Illinois State Normal 6, Vanderbilt 5 (Nashville)
Polls
Vanderbilt is ranked No. 17 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll and by Collegiate Baseball, No. 22 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and No. 25 by Rivals.com and Baseball America. Illinois State is not ranked.
The Coaches
VU’s Tim Corbin is 317-174 in his eighth season in Nashville. He is 423-312 in 14 seasons overall. Corbin is 2-0 against the Redbirds. ISU’s Mark Kingston is 31-22 in his first season with the Redbirds He is 0-1 against Vanderbilt.
Radio/TV/Internet
All of Vanderbilt’s games at the NCAA Louisville Regional can be heard in Nashville on 560 AM WNSR. Joe Fisher will call all the action. Louisville will offer free webcasts for all of the tourney games on www.uoflsports.com. Fans can sign up for text updates via www.twitter.com/vandybaseball and follow livestats for every game at www.vucommodores.com.
What’s On Tap
Vanderbilt is making its fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance and its second straight trip to the Louisville Regional starting on Friday afternoon. The second-seeded Commodores will take on the third-seeded Illinois State Redbirds in the opening game of the tourney on Friday at 1 p.m. CT/ 2 p.m. ET at Jim Patterson Stadium.
The winner of the opener will take on the winner of the top-seed Louisville vs. fourth-seed Saint Louis game on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT/4 p.m. ET. The loser of the opener will take on the loser of the UL-SLU game on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. CT/12 p.m. ET.
NCAA Tournament History
Vanderbilt is making its ninth NCAA tournament appearance this weekend and will look to win its second regional championship under Tim Corbin. The Dores are 15-15 all-time in NCAA play and have made the field a school record five straight times.
VU has reached the NCAA tourney six times in eight seasons under Corbin and has made the regional championship round in five of them.
Last season Vanderbilt entered the Louisville Regional as the No. 3 seed and dropped a 5-4 contest to No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee in the opening game. The Commodores then ran off three straight wins to force a second championship game against Louisville that Monday but lost 5-3.
In 2008, the Commodores went 1-2 as the No. 2 seed in the Tempe Regional. They lost to No. 3 seed Oklahoma in the first round, before rebounding to win against No. 4 seed Stony Brook. The Dores were then eliminated on a walk-off homer to Oklahoma.
In 2007, VU hosted for the first-time in school history as the No. 1 National Seed. VU made the regional championship game for the second straight year, but lost to Michigan.
In 2006, the Dores advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Atlanta Regional before falling to host and eventual College World Series team Georgia Tech.
In 2004, VU swept three games at the Charlottesville, Va. Regional, before falling to eventual NCAA runner-up Texas in a Super Regional in Austin.
Vanderbilt is 12-9 in NCAA tournament games under Tim Corbin. Prior to his arrival in 2003, the Commodores were 3-6 in three previous appearances.
About Illinois State
llinois State is making its third NCAA Regional appearance and first since 1994. The Redbirds (31-22) captured its first-ever share of the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship after going 15-6 in conference play. Illinois State was also crowned the 2010 MVC Tournament Champions after going 4-0 last week in Wichita, Kan., including a 17-8 win over top-seeded Wichita State in the championship game for its first conference tournament title since 1994.
Following the regular season, first-year head coach Mark Kingston was tabbed the Valley’s Coach of the Year after leading ISU’s to its highest win total since 2001.
Individually, Illinois State is led by Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, Kevin Tokarski. Tokarski joined five other Redbirds on the Valley’s All-Conference team, including first-team relievers, Kenny Long and Ryan Copeland. ISU third baseman Ryan Court and designated hitter Anthony Ruffolo earned second-team All-Valley honors while catcher Matt Mirabal was named honorable mention.
Tokarski, a redshirt a sophomore, ranks among the nation’s leaders in batting average (.429), doubles (25) and on-base percentage (.551) while reaching base safely in 48 of 50 games this season.
Long is among the nation’s leaders in ERA, producing a MVC best 1.37 ERA and nine saves in 30 appearances.
As a team, Illinois State is batting .295 collectively while the pitching staff has a team ERA of 5.35 and an opponent batting average of .271.
About Louisville
Louisville earned the nation’s No. 7 overall seed and is hosting an NCAA Regional for the second straight year. The Cardinals (48-12) won their last six games of the regular season before going 2-2 at last week’s Big East Championships.
Louisville clinched its second straight Big East Conference regular season title after sweeping Notre Dame in the final regular season series in South Bend.
Louisville’s 48 wins this year broke last year’s season total of 47 wins, marking a new school record. For Louisville, they are making their fourth straight NCAA Regional appearance.
As a team Louisville is hitting .317 as a team with 85 home runs and 430 RBI.
Louisville has five players with at least 12 home runs, led by Golden Spikes semifinalist Phil Wunderlich’s 20 home runs. Andrew Clark leads the team in hitting, sporting a .377 average while Ryan Wright and Wunderlich are hitting .366 and .357, respectively.
Eight Cardinals were named All-Big East, led by the 2010 Big East Conference Pitcher of the Year, Thomas Royse. Royse is 9-1 with a 2.91 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 99 innings of work.
Joining Royse on the first-team was reliever Neil Holland (8-0, 2.10 ERA), who leads the nation with 16 saves. Clark and sophomore second baseman Ryan Wright were also named first team All-BIG EAST.
About Saint Louis
Saint Louis punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament after winning four games in four days to claim the Atlantic 10 Championship at Campbell’s Field in Camden, N.J.
The Billikens entered the six-team tourney as the No. 5 seed and advanced by knocking off No. 4 Fordham, No. 2 Xavier and No. 1 Charlotte (twice).
Saint Louis is making their fourth overall and second NCAA Baseball Championship appearance in the last five years. The Billikens last made the NCAA Tournament in 2006. SLU has won a school record 33 games this season and enters Regional play on a seven-game winning streak.
At the plate, Saint Louis gets a lot of production out of the heart of their lineup. Senior first baseman Danny Brock and junior third baseman Jon Myers both have over 70 RBI and at least 15 home runs. Brock leads the team in home runs (17) and RBI (73) while Myers leads the team in batting average (.367) and is second in home runs (15) and RBI (70).
As a team SLU is hitting .300 and is scoring 7.2 runs per contest while stealing 95 bags in 124 chances.
On the mound, senior Bryant Cotton leads the team with a 9-4 record and 3.97 ERA while A-10 Rookie of the Year Alex Alemann is 9-5 with a 4.53 ERA. Cotton was named the A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player after allowing two runs on four hits in nine innings of work. The SLU pitching staff has a 6.43 team ERA while opponents are batting .332 off them.
Brian Harris Approaching NCAA Record
The next time senior shortstop Brian Harris is hit by a pitch, he will tie the NCAA record for most times hit in a season. He currently has been plunked 34 times and a 35th time would tie him with Creighton’s Robbie Knight who set the mark in 60 games in 2007.
Harris has been hit 68 times in his four-year career and unless he is barraged by a ton of pitches in NCAA play, the career mark of 109 times by Notre Dame’s Brett Lilley (2005-08) appears to be safe.
Giobbi Approaching Doubles Mark
Senior catcher Andrew Giobbi has currently recorded 55 doubles in his career, good for third place on the school’s all-time list. He has 14 this season and is six behind Sean Luellwitz (61 from 1999-2002) for second place. Former teammate Dominic de la Osa holds the school record with 63 from 2005-08.
In addition, Giobbi was named one of 16 semifinalists for the 2010 Coleman Company-Johnny Bench Award on Wednesday, May 19.
The Portland, Maine, native has had an outstanding season thus far behind the plate, having thrown out 22 of 52 runners attempting to steal. He has also caught a pitching staff (calls own game) that has a stellar 3.64 team ERA; best in the SEC. Offensively he usually bats in the middle of the order and enters the NCAA Tournament with a .293 batting average with seven homers and 52 RBI.
Giobbi and LSU catcher Micah Gibbs were the lone representatives from the SEC to make the semifinal list.
This is the second year in a row “Gio” has been named to the watch list and the first time he has advanced as a semifinalist. Ballots will be sent to the national voting panel at the end of May for a vote to determine the three finalists. The finalists will be announced June 2, 2010 prior to the NCAA Regionals and Major League Baseball Draft. A final vote among the national committee will occur during the College World Series. All finalists will be brought to Wichita and the winner will be announced at the 13th Annual Greater Wichita Sports Banquet on July 1, 2010.
Westlake Named To SEC All-Tourney Team
Redshirt sophomore Aaron Westlake was named to the Southeastern Conference’s all-tournament team at the designated hitter spot.
Despite playing first base the entire tournament, Westlake made the DH spot because of his offensive numbers. He went 5-for-9 (.556) with a homer, double, two RBI and three runs scored. The cleanup hitter slugged 1.000 and also walked four times without striking out to sport a .692 on base percentage.
Gray Goes Over Century Mark In Strikeouts
With Sonny Gray’s eight-strikeout performance against Arkansas last Wednesday, the sophomore right-hander reached the 100-strikeout mark on the season.
He is the 11th Commodore to join the club and is just one strikeout shy of tying Mike Minor (2008) and Mike Byrd (1999) for ninth on the school’s single season list.
The single season leader is David Price with 194 in 2007.
Brewer Closing in Saves Record
Redshirt junior Russell Brewer recorded his sixth save of the season in the Commodores 11-10 win over Middle Tennessee on April 21, giving him 18 saves in his career. He needs one more to tie Ryan Rote who notched 19 saves in two seasons as a Commodore. Brewer is eighth in the SEC in saves and sports a 3.07 earned run average in 19 relief appearances with 39 strikeouts and eight walks in 29.1 innings pitched. He was added to the Stopper of the Year Watch List on April 15.
Player – Saves (Years at Vanderbilt)
1. Ryan Rote 19 (2004-05)
2. Russell Brewer 18 (2007-present)
3. David Daniels 15 (1992-95)