The first step in our CWS journey at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha is versus Louisville (49-16) at 1 PM CT Sunday on ESPN.
Our team, after a historically great performance from Kumar Rocker last Saturday Night in which he threw a complete game no hitter with 2 walks and 19 strikeouts, came back on Sunday and hit 5 home runs in a 13-2 Super Regional series clinching victory over a scrappy Duke team.
Austin Martin hit a pair of homers, and Pat DeMarco, Julian Infante and Stephen Scott also went yard. It was a fantastic performance at the plate for our electrically potent offense. We didn't hit our best the first 2 games of the series, but Kumar bailed us out Saturday Night, and we were ready to hit on Sunday.
We are now 54-11. Drake Fellows (12-1, 4.15 ERA, 104 innings pitched, 42 walks, 120 K's) will get the start for us versus the Cardinals, and I'm speculating that the Cardinals will throw left hander Reid Detmers, who's put up some impressive numbers this season. The sophomore is 12-4 with a 2.85 ERA, with 27 walks and 162 K's in 107 innings pitched. So quite a formidable task.
We defeated Louisville in May at Louisville, 6-2, but we'll have our work cut out for us on Sunday. Louisiville had a super season though and finished No.6 in the country. They are 49-16 and coming off a sweep of East Carolina in the Super Regional. Detmers pitched last Friday Night in a 14-1 Cardinals victory and went 7, gave up 5 hits, 1 run with 2 walks and 6 K’s.
Gotta pitch well, defend pretty much flawlessly, and hit in crucial spots, with men on. We need to get men on first. Need Austin to lead the way and JJ, Ethan, Stephen and Philip, all our RBI guys, to come through. A long ball or 2 or 3 would be tremendous. Our whole lineup with Pat DeMarco, Harrison Ray, Ty Duvall and Julian Infante, who was tremendous against Duke, is capable of doing damage. We face a tough left hander, so we’ll have to bare down against him.
The winner of our game vs Louisville will play the winner of the Auburn (38-26) -Mississippi State (51-13) game on Tuesday at 6 PM CT on ESPN.
So exciting times for our baseball team and the Vanderbilt brethren.
As Coach Mason says, and he now has 8 impressive commits for the 2020 recruiting class with very possibly more to follow this weekend in what could be an outstanding class which I'll talk about Monday along with baseball, "God bless and Let's Ride."