Back in early June, 2010, Vandy was in the Louisville regional. We won game 1 then lost game 2 to Louisville. We had to fight out of the losers' bracket with a close win Sunday morning capped by Aaron Westlake's towering home run, leading to a rematch with Louisville Sunday afternoon, needing to win 2 to take the regional. We had exhausted our starting pitching. From the bullpen came Richie Goodenow, a seldom used situational lefty, to start the game. Louisville was foaming at the mouth to face him. Richie promptly threw a masterful complete game, 2 hit shutout to set up a winner-take-all final game on Monday night.
What happened to us last night with Jackson was the same kind of thing, just with the shoe on the other foot. Kudos to him for shutting down our offensive machine from Friday and Saturday. We looked lost at the plate after the first few innings when every hard hit ball we got when right at a Clemson player or they made a great play. That's deflating and you could almost see the wind coming out of our sails. Clemson could not have scripted a better game for themselves and we could not have scripted a worse game.
What's done is done, however, and it has no effect on tonight's game although Clemson's exaggerated cockiness they always exhibit is likely magnified. Strut all they want (led by their chief advocate, Rusty the Clown TV guy) I don't think that will have any effect on us tonight. And speaking of Rusty, what Bozo at ESPN thought it would be a welcome idea to put a UT guy in the booth for Vandy games? I do despise ESPN for doing crap like this.
Now back to 2010. In the winner-take-all game, as fate would have it, Vandy ended up using what would in 2011 would become our weekend rotation -- Grayson Garvin, Sonny Gray, Taylor Hill -- all who had pitched on Friday and Saturday. Sonny lost on Saturday 7-1 but managed to throw 2 innings. Taylor and Grayson both had pitched a lot on Friday night in a 13 inning victory. It was a nip and tuck game that ended with Connor Harrell's suicide squeeze bunt single in the bottom of the 10th that gave Vandy a 3-2 win. I was there and it was one of the greatest moments ever in my Vandy sportswatching career.
I think tonight will be another such night, the only difference being I won't be in Clemson, instead I'll be sitting in my man cave watching on TV with friends and family. I'll have to figure out a way to send my vibes to Clemson somehow, probably with my Smart Phone. There's bound to be an App for that.
What happened to us last night with Jackson was the same kind of thing, just with the shoe on the other foot. Kudos to him for shutting down our offensive machine from Friday and Saturday. We looked lost at the plate after the first few innings when every hard hit ball we got when right at a Clemson player or they made a great play. That's deflating and you could almost see the wind coming out of our sails. Clemson could not have scripted a better game for themselves and we could not have scripted a worse game.
What's done is done, however, and it has no effect on tonight's game although Clemson's exaggerated cockiness they always exhibit is likely magnified. Strut all they want (led by their chief advocate, Rusty the Clown TV guy) I don't think that will have any effect on us tonight. And speaking of Rusty, what Bozo at ESPN thought it would be a welcome idea to put a UT guy in the booth for Vandy games? I do despise ESPN for doing crap like this.
Now back to 2010. In the winner-take-all game, as fate would have it, Vandy ended up using what would in 2011 would become our weekend rotation -- Grayson Garvin, Sonny Gray, Taylor Hill -- all who had pitched on Friday and Saturday. Sonny lost on Saturday 7-1 but managed to throw 2 innings. Taylor and Grayson both had pitched a lot on Friday night in a 13 inning victory. It was a nip and tuck game that ended with Connor Harrell's suicide squeeze bunt single in the bottom of the 10th that gave Vandy a 3-2 win. I was there and it was one of the greatest moments ever in my Vandy sportswatching career.
I think tonight will be another such night, the only difference being I won't be in Clemson, instead I'll be sitting in my man cave watching on TV with friends and family. I'll have to figure out a way to send my vibes to Clemson somehow, probably with my Smart Phone. There's bound to be an App for that.
