Mercifully, Tide Loses 16-1

Coming off a loss to Texas A&M on Thursday night, the powerful Vanderbilt baseball team came out on Friday afternoon and took out their frustrations on the Crimson Tide, plummeting the men in Crimson by a 16-1 score in a mercy rule shortened seven innings.  The Commodores broke this one open in the fourth, sending 12 men to the plate and scoring eight runs on eight hits off of four Bama pitchers. Four of the Vandy hits in the inning were doubles, and the 'Dores tied an SEC Tournament record with eight doubles in the game. Vanderbilt added three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth. The Tide collected only four hits with one walk and nine strikeouts in the seven inning game.

Vandy left-hander Philip Pfeifer pitched a complete game, throwing only 69 pitches. Carter was handed the loss and his record fell to 4-6 on the season. Avant, White and J.C.Wilhite all had singles for 'Bama and Salem's 12th double of the season was the only other hit for the Tide. White was 1-1 with a walk and a sacrifice fly. The shortstop's sixth inning single was almost certainly his last at bat in a Crimson Tide uniform, as he will be a high draft pick in the June MLB draft. The Hoover junior was tearfully hugging his teammates after the game, seemingly telling them good bye.

White will be tough to replace after leading the team in average at .339, runs with 48, doubles with 19, triples with six, slugging percentage at .537, walks with 21, in hit by pitches and on base percentage at .444. Casey Hughston was next with a .332 average, led in hits with 78, in RBIs with 44, and total bases with 118, while finishing second in stolen bases with 12. J.C. Wilhite was the only other player hitting over .300 with a .307 average. Kyle Overstreet hit .281 for the season and was second in runs driven in with 38. Salem hit .276 and led the team with 17 stolen bases. Will Haynie was the home run leader with eight, while driving in 29 and batting .195. The team batting average was .275 with 105 doubles, 20 triples and 27 home runs. Geoffrey Bramblett led the pitching staff in wins with eight, and had a 8-3 mark with a 3.81 ERA in 89.2 innings. Taylor Guilbeau led in innings pitched with 92.2 and in strikeouts with 79, while posting a 3-6 record and a 3.69 ERA. Thomas Burrows was the save leader with seven, and in appearances with 27, with a 1-3 record and a 3.22 ERA over 36.1 innings and 38 strikeouts. Ray Castillo had a 3-1 record and four saves in 24 appearances with a 3.12 ERA over 49 innings, with 46 strikeouts. Jake Walters had a fine freshman season and was 4-4 with a 3.36 ERA over 56.1 innings pitched, with 62 strikeouts.

The last game was a disappointing ending to a disappointing season, as the team had played much better over the last three weeks of the season. Today's game and a March 1 game with Louisiana-Lafayette were the two most lopsided games that 'Bama played in this homeless season. With the new "Joe" set to be ready in October the team looks forward to returning home for next season. A report of what went wrong and what went right this season will follow over the next few days,and we will examine the program going forward. Roll Tide Bama Baseball Fever, Catch It!