Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Cross-Town Throw-Down: Lipscomb comes to Vanderbilt

The Lipscomb Bisons make their a few blocks north to take on the Number 1 ranked Vanderbilt Commodores today at 4 pm. Lipscomb, at 5-2 in the Atlantic Sun is riding a 5-game winning streak after dropping their first two games at Evansville. Their current win-streak includes an upset victory.
The Lipscomb Offense is led by Senior Casey Bond who is hitting .360 thus far this season. As a team, however, the Bisons are batting a paltry .264 on the season with a total of only 57 hits. Their SLG % is .352 and their OB% is .344. While low, the numbers are a bit miss-leading. The Bisons have put respectable offensive numbers, that is, when they can string together hits. They have recorded 8 or more hits in 5 of 7 games, yet in those games only scored in double-digits once, scoring 13 (on 13 hits) against Chicago State. In contrast, and what seems to be more reflective of their season, they Bisons had 11 hits against Auburn but only 4 runs.

On the hill, the Bison pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.05 with 56 K’s in 62 innings pitched. Unfortunately, the staff has also given up 21 earned runs and walked 27 batters, including 9 hit batsmen.

There is no comparison; Vanderbilt leads the Lipscomb squad in almost every major category. They are hitting .340 as a team with 72 hits through six games. Their SLG% is almost 200 points higher at .542 and their OB% is nearly 100 points at .424. The Commies have racked up at least 9 hits in each of their first 6, including double digits twice and one win by the 10-run mercy rule.

The Commie pitchers, as mentioned earlier in an earlier post, have a 1.83 ERA, surrendering only 35 hits and 14 walks. They are two shy of the Lipscomb’s K-count with 54. Furthermore, opponents are only batting 1.81 against Commies.

Senior John King (0-0, 0.00ERA) will make his second start this season. He pitched 5 innings against Auburn in a no-decision, giving up two un-earned runs on four hits.


Mike Minor, a freshman, will make his first collegiate start this afternoon against the Bisons. He got the save against Baylor on February 11th, in 2.1 innings of work where he struck out two, walked one, and didn’t give up a hit.

Neither team has been spectacular in the field: Lipscomb has committed 15 errors thus far compared to Vanderbilt’s 9. On paper, the Diamond Dores should win this brief contest hands-down. I’m sure that Coach Corbin has his team well-focused and ready to go against their cross town neighbors.

The Commies are dominating the all-time series, 39-9, but split the season last year. The commies destroyed the Bisons on their own field in a 16-3 win on April 12th of last year while the Bisons stormed back from an 8-4 deficit to beat Vandy 11-8 on May 8th at Hawkins field.

On another note, David Price was honored at Tennessee’s Sports Hall of Fame Banquet this past weekend for his efforts during Vanderbilt’s 2006 season. He was named national Pitcher of the Week three times, finishing with a record of 9-5 and a school record 155 K’s. He averaged 12.1 K’s per nine, good enough for third, nationally and Number 1 in the SEC. After going 5-1 with Team USA where he recorded 61 K’s, .20 ERA, and only seven walks, Baseball American named him the National Summer Player of the Year.


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