We arrived with James Guthrie at the ballpark around 11:00 this morning to catch the second half of the Arkansas and Carolina semi-final. First off, Hoover Met is a great size because it's small enough to feel intimate but large enough that you can sit wherever you want. Even with 7,000 in attendance (capacity of 10,000), we settled in a few rows behind home plate to test our mettle against the Birmingham heat. It was a hazy, humid day and man -- it was hot. Needless to say, there was a lot of maroon (well, garnet and 'cardinal') in the stands. The Hogs won (Cristy and I got to call the Hogs twice) and head to tomorrow's final with a tidy 3-0 record thus far.
Vandy's first game against Ole Miss started at 1:00, and we moved down the third base line to join the Black & Gold contingent. It was probably 70% Ole Miss, 20% Vandy, and 10% neutral in the stands. The neutral fans are awesome -- these are real baseball fans who come to every tournament game, keep score, and appreciate good SEC baseball.
The weather cooled a bit -- nice breeze and some clouds -- while Vandy came out red hot. With a homer by Pedro Alvarez in the first and homers by Dominic De La Osa and Parker Hanks in the second, Vanderbilt grabbed an 8-0 lead that Cody Crowell had no trouble holding. The only real drama was when we were one out away from winning by 'slaughter rule' (up by 10 after seven innings) when the Rebels grabbed a run of their own. A 2-RBI double by Flash in the 8th helped give us the 13-1 win after 8 innings.
Following a forty-five minute break and another mediocre Hoover Met meal (we thankfully brought sandwiches for lunch earlier), it was time for a Vandy Ole Miss rematch and Vandy's fifth game in four days. The game started off looking like a slugfest against thin pitching staffs -- both teams scored two in the first and an additional run by Ole Miss in the 3rd chased Ty Davis. With Davis out, it was Jason Cunningham's turn to take the ball.
Cunningham is interesting for a few reasons. One, he wears a single digit number (#2) which always looks bizarre on a pitcher's back. I think in all of MLB history there are only seven or eight single-digit pitchers -- and we had two this game with Cunningham and Ole Miss' Saderwhite (#7). Two, Cunningham's delivery is 95% arm and 5% legs. He just takes a step and throws the ball -- no form at all. Three, he was the team manager last season! A true walk-on who has thrown two innings all season and emerged to throw 4.2 shutout innings in the SEC semi-final against the reigning Tournament champion. You can't make it up -- it's not believable.
After Cunningham, Weathers came in and did his thing (he ended with 8 K's in 3.2). So we enter the bottom of the 9th down by 1 run facing their ace reliever Cody Saderwhite. Lead-off double by Shea Robin (more on him later). Ryan Davis drops a bunt and Ole Miss gets greedy trying to get Shea at third -- safe, men on the corners with no one out. After a foul out, David Macias hits a long fly ball down the line in left that scores the run and ties the game! Can't score the runner from second, though, so we head to extras. After 10 hours at the stadium, we get even more free baseball...
The top of the 10th was pure baseball agony. Weathers strikes out the first guy. Then Overbeck (who had 4 E's on the day) knocks a nice single. Ole Miss gets two cheap infield singles and loads the bases with nobody out. With Farr up, Ole Miss tries a squeeze and misses the bunt! Shea gets the runner on third in a rundown and then... throws the ball high and out to left field. Two runs score and the runner from first goes all the way to third. Ole Miss brings that guy home and we're down 6-3 heading to the bottom of the 10th.
The Ole Miss fans were hoddy toddy going nuts -- some pent up exuberance after getting silenced in the first game -- and the outlook wasn't pretty for the Vandy nine this day.
Bottom of the 10th with Saderwhite still pitching. De La Osa leads off with a HR! Down by two. Pedro smacks a single. Flash hits a single, first and second. Meingasner goes to sacrifice the runners over, and Overbeck throws the ball ten feet wide of first!! Alvarez comes around to score, Flash to third and Meingasner to second.
And then up strides Shea Robin -- 18 innings behind the dish and the goat of the game with his error just ten minutes earlier. So what does he do? Smacks a single to right! One run in!! Two runs in!!! VANDY WINS!!!!
It was nuts! We were losing the whole game, scratch out a run to tie in the 9th, drop down 3 in the 10th, just to score 4 runs (in five batters no less) in the bottom of the 10th! Just great story stacked on top of great story.
So, one more day in Birmingham -- the SEC Championship will be played between Arkansas and Vanderbilt tomorrow at 3:00. Vandy may be stretched a little thin -- five games in four days and no Weathers available -- but who cares! This team just wins -- they find a way.
We'll probably goto church in the morning, grab a healthy lunch ('bout time), and then get to Hoover Met early to grab some good seats. It should be another wild day...
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