Commies Complete Impressive Weekend for Vanderbilt Athletics

Today, Vanderbilt Baseball reached a historic milestone. For the first time in school history, the Vanderbilt Baseball team was ranked Number 1 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball, joining only Women's Basketball and Women's Golf as Vany athletic teams ranked First in the Country. In the Baseball America poll, Vanderbilt pounced on the Gamecocks misfortune and rose to Number 3.

The Commies swept the Ohio Bobcats this past weekend in a series that was never very competitive. The series began with Nick Jacobson getting the start after David Price was scratched due the flu. He stepped up and performed beautifully, striking out 4 and walking 3 in five innings of work. He was one of three pitchers that combined to two-hit the Bobcats, the others being Tyler Rhoden and Caleb Cotham, who made his Commie debut with a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth.

Due to inclement weather, the Saturday contest was cancelled and was made up in a Sunday double header. Nick Christiani, pictured at left, got the nod for the early game and gave up just six hits in an eight inning complete game performance which The Commies won 11-1 to invoke the mercy rule.

Pedro Alvarez, the All-American third basemen, launched two 2R home runs for four RBI's in the game. Ryan Flaherty got things rolling for Vandy in the 3rd inning of the opener with a laser two-run double that scored Macias and Alvarez who walked ahead of him. Every Vandy starter in the first game, other then first basemen Brad French had a hit in the game with catcher Shea Robin collecting three, including a double.

French made up for his earlier plate appearances in the second game when be broke open the game in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out, two run double. Vanderbilt got two more in the 7th when Alex Feinberg hit an infield RBI single and and de la Osa followed with an RBI single of his own.

The real story in the second game was David Price. He began the night a little shaky, giving up a lead-off double to J.T. Osburn, Ohio's right fielder who eventually came around to score their only run of the game and a lead-off single in the second. After that, he settled in and retired the next 16 batters he faced, including 11 via strikeout. He had 12 total in the game. He allowed one run on three hits and didn't walk anyone.

Some overall numbers from the series:

Vanderbilt scored 26 runs on 41 hits to Ohio's 3 run on 11 hits. The Commie pitchers fanned 31 Bobcats and allowed only 1 earned run in 26 innings!

On the season, the Commies are batting .340 with a .542 slugging percentage while the guys on the mound have a combined ERA of 1.83. We've scored 47 runs to opponents 16 and have 115 total bases to opponents 48. The Commie batters have drawn twice as many walks as our opponents and have a on base percentage of .428.

Some individual notes:

Pedro Alvarez is hitting .444 with 3 HR's, 2 2B, 1 3B, 9 RBI and a .926 SLG%.

Alex Feinberg is hitting .417 with 1 HR, 2 2B, 8RBI, and second on the team with 10 hits. (Alvarez has 12)

Brett Jacobson has a .077 ERA in 11.1 innings pitched with 10 K's.

Daivd Price has a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings pitched with 18 K's.

Corbin's boys take on Libscomb at Hawkins Field this Wednesday at 4 pm central.