Rumors out of Columbia this morning are that they are bringing in famed actor Hal Holbrook to dress up like Mark Twain and throw out the first pitch at today's game. I checked with Cocky about this, and he said, "We have to have at least one Holbrook at the game who is talented and knows what they're doing." Ouch!
Doing what virtually no person in the world thought would happen in the series, the Dores have taken both games 1 and 2 and have the chance to sweep today. Oddly enough, this would be Vandy's second sweep in the last 3 visits to Colombia if that happens if one counts the 2-0 result in 2013 as a sweep. (If you recall, Vandy easily won those 2 games and on Sunday it was raining and South Carolina said their players had to "study for exams" and couldn't play that day. Seriously? Study? Final exams? South Carolina athletes? )
In any event, The Whistler was scouring the Ben Franklin 5 & 10 cent Stores all over Columbia last night trying to locate brooms to take to the game. We trust he/they were successful.
Best thing about this series so far is that many, many guys have contributed to the win. Rupp was, of course, amazing last night with 7 shut out innings in relief giving up only 2 hits, 3 base runners, and retiring the last 14 men he faced. He clearly earned this win.
Julian Infante shared the man of the hour status by belting another towering home run in the 13th inning to provide the runs needed to win the game.
Earlier in the game Stephen Scott, Infante, Will Toffey, Drew Hayes, and Walker Grisanti all contributed to scoring the other runs of the night. Kyle Wright had perhaps his best outing of the year and yielded 0 earned runs.
Speaking of earned runs, the Dore staff has an ERA this weekend of 1.64 as there were also 3 unearned runs given up in game 1. Normally, giving up 6 earned runs in 2 games will kill you but this VandyBoys squad has some fight and grit in them that we hadn't seen earlier in the year. They are playing as a "team" and multiple guys are coming through in the clutch and, yes, helping make up for the miscues of their fellow teammates.
Speaking of miscues -- lordy, lordy, was Alonzo Jones a mess last night. In fact, it was another error of his in game 1 that allowed those 3 unearned runs as well. That makes Jones responsible for ALL 6 UNEARNED RUNS SO FAR. Jones is a far better athlete than this and Vandy fans everywhere, being the patient people that we are, are fervently hoping his skills get on track sooner than later. I trust they will and that "soap in a sock" party the pitching staff had for him in the wee hours of the morning today might just do the trick.
Who among us can say that we haven't made mistakes in life that earned us the equivalent of 6 unearned runs in the space of 28 hours? I sure can't and I bet you can't either. Besides, he'll likely get in the Elias Book of World Baseball Records for that feat and, as many people say, "all publicity is good publicity" in the world of sports, entertainment, and, dare I say, politics.
Normally we'd all be content with winning a series on the road and not care what happens today, just play with the house money we've been alloted. Unfortunately, the leaders in the SEC (Kentucky, Auburn, Arkansas) all won their game 1's last night so Vandy really needs to keep winning to stay apace. We are currently 2 1/2 games behind Kentucky in the East, tied for 4th overall in the SEC, and bunched together with 8 other teams in the standings.
Win, baby, win is our Motto For the Day.
Go Dores.
Doing what virtually no person in the world thought would happen in the series, the Dores have taken both games 1 and 2 and have the chance to sweep today. Oddly enough, this would be Vandy's second sweep in the last 3 visits to Colombia if that happens if one counts the 2-0 result in 2013 as a sweep. (If you recall, Vandy easily won those 2 games and on Sunday it was raining and South Carolina said their players had to "study for exams" and couldn't play that day. Seriously? Study? Final exams? South Carolina athletes? )
In any event, The Whistler was scouring the Ben Franklin 5 & 10 cent Stores all over Columbia last night trying to locate brooms to take to the game. We trust he/they were successful.
Best thing about this series so far is that many, many guys have contributed to the win. Rupp was, of course, amazing last night with 7 shut out innings in relief giving up only 2 hits, 3 base runners, and retiring the last 14 men he faced. He clearly earned this win.
Julian Infante shared the man of the hour status by belting another towering home run in the 13th inning to provide the runs needed to win the game.
Earlier in the game Stephen Scott, Infante, Will Toffey, Drew Hayes, and Walker Grisanti all contributed to scoring the other runs of the night. Kyle Wright had perhaps his best outing of the year and yielded 0 earned runs.
Speaking of earned runs, the Dore staff has an ERA this weekend of 1.64 as there were also 3 unearned runs given up in game 1. Normally, giving up 6 earned runs in 2 games will kill you but this VandyBoys squad has some fight and grit in them that we hadn't seen earlier in the year. They are playing as a "team" and multiple guys are coming through in the clutch and, yes, helping make up for the miscues of their fellow teammates.
Speaking of miscues -- lordy, lordy, was Alonzo Jones a mess last night. In fact, it was another error of his in game 1 that allowed those 3 unearned runs as well. That makes Jones responsible for ALL 6 UNEARNED RUNS SO FAR. Jones is a far better athlete than this and Vandy fans everywhere, being the patient people that we are, are fervently hoping his skills get on track sooner than later. I trust they will and that "soap in a sock" party the pitching staff had for him in the wee hours of the morning today might just do the trick.
Who among us can say that we haven't made mistakes in life that earned us the equivalent of 6 unearned runs in the space of 28 hours? I sure can't and I bet you can't either. Besides, he'll likely get in the Elias Book of World Baseball Records for that feat and, as many people say, "all publicity is good publicity" in the world of sports, entertainment, and, dare I say, politics.
Normally we'd all be content with winning a series on the road and not care what happens today, just play with the house money we've been alloted. Unfortunately, the leaders in the SEC (Kentucky, Auburn, Arkansas) all won their game 1's last night so Vandy really needs to keep winning to stay apace. We are currently 2 1/2 games behind Kentucky in the East, tied for 4th overall in the SEC, and bunched together with 8 other teams in the standings.
Win, baby, win is our Motto For the Day.
Go Dores.
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