VU vs Evansville

[Levon]

Nice start for freshman pitcher Devin Futrell. Three batters faced, 14 pitches thrown, three domineering strikeouts. Sweet!

[Levon]

Vandy wearing their sharp grays with gold/black trim. They rarely wear this kit, but it is one of their best looks.

[Levon]

Purple Aces pitcher struggling to throw strikes, walks Jr & Bulger to open the game. Jones hits a grounder to SS's right, nice play for force at 2nd. Then Keegs hits a made-to-order DP ball to SS, but 2B throws high to first; Keeg's safe, Jr scored. Kolwyk Ks looking for the 3rd out. 1-0 Dores.

On Keeg's groundout, he pulled a pitch away from him instead of going the other way and hit a weak hopper to SS. Frustrating.

[Go Vandy!]

.

[Levon]

Futrell strikes out the side in the 2nd as well. Six hitters, six strong Ks. Good combo of fastball and changeup, 26 pitches, 18 strikes. Aces have only made contact on two swings (that I remember)--a foul tip off Keegs, and a sharp line drive foul past 1B. Futrell looking very good.

[Levon]

Noland first-pitch swinging (YAY!!) gets a big hopper-up-the-middle infield single. Young then Ks looking. Sigh... Noland steals 2B.
BTW, Noland playing 1B today, Davis Diaz at 3B and TJ McKenzie getting his first career start in LF.

[Levon]

Diaz gets a gift-single in first collegiate AB. Pop behind second baseman that neither he nor RF made the play on; either should have caught it, Noland goes to 3rd. McKenzie follows with a safety squeeze scoring Noland and the pitchers throws the ball away at 1B, Diaz to 3rd. 2-0 Vandy. 3-0 now on a Jr Sac Fly to the warning track in right, TJ to 2b. Bulger lines out to RF.

[Levon]

Correction, Futrell threw 27 pitches, 19 strikes in first 2 innings. Leadoff single on oppo-field, first swinging stroke for Aces. Nice swing on a pretty good pitch up and away. Young fields a tough short hop, gets the first out at 2nd himself, but Noland can't squeeze the throw at 1B for two. It would've been very close anyway. Diaz diving stop on ball heading to the hole, up quickly throws him out at first. Very nice play for the freshman. Routine ground out to Young for 3rd out. Futrell up to 39 pitches, looking very good.

[Levon]

New pitcher, Jones 4-pitch walk, nothing even close to a strike. Jones steals 2nd with no throw; 3rd Dores' steal (Jr had one in the 1st). Keegs walks, nothing close again. Kolwyk sacs the runners up (that doesn't sound right, does it?), 1 out. Another huge hopper by Noland and 2B can't handle the quick exchange and drops the ball, E-4, RBI for Noland as Jones scores, Keegs moves up. Young first-pitch swinging (YAY!!) smokes a rocket off the pitcher's ass, bounds into LF, Keegs scores, Noland goes to 3rd. Another new pitcher coming in. 5-0 Vandy.
I'll just give highlights from here out

[Levon]

One quick note...Evansville is not very good. We may see a lot guys play tonight.

[Levon]

TJ McKenzie drops a 2-run bomb to right. Very strong swing going with the pitch...what a concept!
TJ now has 4 RBI on a safety squeeze, bases loaded walk and 2-run HR. Very memorable first start.

[Levon]

Jones lines his 2nd hit up the middle. Went oppo with a double earlier. Hitting the pitch where thrown vs trying to pull and lift everything. Again, what a concept!

[Levon]

Raining hard in top 6, been raining for the last 30-40 minutes or so. Freshman Bryce Cunningham in his 2nd inning. Tough to debut in a steady rain, but he's doing well. 3 Ks, 2 BBs and an inning ending soft ground ball DP. Frosh pitchers have looked good so far this year.

[Levon]

And again, temper everything with the understanding that Evansville is not very good; Vandy should be winning easily, so it's good that they are.

[Levon]

Umps talking with Corbs & Aces mgr. They need to stop, raining hard. Evansville 2B, who has a funky throwing motion anyway, made a horrible throw for an error clearly affected by the rain, and last pitch of game was about 4 feet above Vandy batter's head.
Game is called in bottom 6, Vandy wins 9-0.

[Levon]

Biggest takeaways...
- Freshman pitchers looked good. Combined threw 87 pitches, 55 for strikes; good ratio. No runs, 1 hit, 11 Ks, 2 walks (both after it started raining). To emphasize, Evansville really is not good, but still quite impressive performances.
- Spencer Jones is on the verge of superstar status. He hits the pitch hard where it's thrown. He's on track to be this year's breakthrough star.
- Bulger consistently makes contact, but not with authority; hits lots of groundballs. But putting the ball in play matters...he's hitting .333 after 4 games. When he starts driving the ball instead of grounding the ball, he'll be a beast.
- Bradfield's swing doesn't look right. He's hit some balls hard, but he's also had too many swings & misses. He's walked a lot, is running well and scored a lot of runs, but his swing just looks off.
- Speaking of swings that are off, Keegan, Noland and Young continue to struggle. Young hit one bullet tonight (first pitch swing no less), but struck out badly twice and hit a soft ground ball. Noland topped 3 big hoppers and missed a 3rd strike slider badly. He just looks lost right now. Keegan walked twice, but he also swung at a ball up and away to K, and in the 1st inning pulled a pitch down and away into what should've been an easy DP. If he had just hit that pitch where thrown, his chances for success would have been greater. These three are all good hitters. Right now they're all in a funk. They need to break out soon.
- It's February. Corbs knows what he's doing. This team will grow and develop and by April will once again be an Omaha contender. That's what I'm telling myself.

[MrMemorial]

Our young pitchers looked really good but indeed the weather was crummy. Evansville is not Okie State but they did have a road win at Georgia last season, a road win at Indiana the previous season and a pair of wins at Iowa the year before. But they won't be confused with the 2002 Oakland A's anytime soon.

[bornadore57]

Thank you for the notes, Levon.

[Levon]

Thank you for the notes, Levon.

You're welcome...

[admin]

Thanks Levon!