Goodenow continues to be great

By Eric Jones (Photo by Ross Obley)

Richie Goodenow was brought in to face FSU's Jayce Boyd with a runner on base. In typical Richie fashion, he gets a groundball doubleplay, gives up a hit to Devon Travis, then gets Rafael Lopez to strikeout swinging.

Although it is no complete game nine-inning shutout, still a nice follow-up to the Louisville Regional start which earned him Regional Tournament MVP honors. Low-keyed and unassuming, Richie is now the pitcher of record after Esposito's solo homerun in the top of the seventh to give Vandy the lead 7-6. The six-run deficit is eerily reminiscent of the Dore's come-from-behind win over UK earlier this year when they trailed 7-0 only to rally for a 9-8 win.

Monday Regional notebook

By David Rutz (AP Photo - Ed Reinke)

The Commodores enter the same scenario as last season in today's Regional final against Louisville, coming in on the heels of a victory over the Cardinals a day earlier, a 7-0 gem thrown by Richie Goodenow.

They hope the similarities end there.

Click here to read more about today's match-up and player reactions to the weekend's action here in Louisville.

Who in the World is Tommy Twowins?

By Eric Jones

ESPN the magazine has written a blurb on the good luck ritual of Sonny Gray, who pens in singer songwriter Taylor Swift's name on the Vanderbilt passlist each game. She hasn't shown yet, but after all we already have Lady Antebellum's Hillary Scott as a regular at Hawkins Field.

So it was of no surprise to find a new name next to Richie Goodenow on the VU Player Pass List for tonight's Louisville game: Tommy Twowins. The ticket office is used to the hyjinx of our players and love them just the same, but we did wonder who this new friend of Richie's was today. And now, (as Paul Harvey used to say), the rest of the story.

Goodenow exeeds everyone's expectations

By David Rutz (AP Photo - Ed Reinke)

Junior left-hander Richie Goodenow was given quite an assignment for his second career start with the Commodores: hold down the powerful Louisville offense.

Vanderbilt's season depended on it.

Click here to read more.

Bullpen ready for regional play

by Eric Jones (Photo by Jimmy Jones)

Okay, maybe there isn't too much bright side from the SEC Tournament this year. Two losses in three games tends to put a damper on most fans' perspective and maybe comments to this post will tend towards the cynical. Still, the Commodore bullpen answered the call and appears ready to continue to be this team's major strength.

Five different Commodore relievers (Goodenow, Reid, Garvin, Clinard and Hayes) saw action over the three games; the results - two runs allowed (one earned) in 11 innings. That's a 0.82 ERA with nine strikeouts and just one walk allowed. Out of 41 total batters faced out of the bullpen, just 10 reached base and no inherited runners scored over the three games. Richie Goodenow was the only reliever to work in more than one game, keeping the Florida hitters in check for 3.2 innings of scoreless relief tonight after inducing an inning-ending double-play to get the hold in the Dores 2-0 shutout of Arkansas on opening night.

Look for the coaching staff to continue to use match-ups depending on the situation throughout the post-season. The logic is simple - if it's working, no need to change.

Senior southpaw comes up big

by SID

On a day that he would have been walking at Vanderbilt's graduation ceremonies, southpaw Richie Goodenow came up big for the Commodores on Friday night.

Goodenow, who was featured in a story by Jeff Lockridge in Friday's Tennessean, came on in relief of Sonny Gray in the sixth inning and kept an aggressive Mississippi State offense off balance. He struck out five in three innings of hitless relief in the Commodores 13-8 win. The Overton High School grad is having his best season at Vanderbilt with a 2.67 ERA with 35 strikeouts and nine walks in 27.0 innings.

Goodenow, along with teammates Russell Brewer, Andrew Giobbi, Drew Hayes, Mark Lamm, Jordan Wormsley and student assistant Alexander Levitt missed graduation festivities on Friday and will have a special ceremony for family and friends on Monday.

Baseball in LA

by SID

The baseball team arrived in LA around 11:30 a.m. PT and practiced at UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium tonight.

The team should be able to get plenty of rest overnight and tomorrow as Friday's game against UCLA is not till 6 p.m. local time (8 p.m. back in Nashville).

Aaron Fitt of Baseball America did a preview of the matchup between the top two sophomore pitchers in the country, VU's Sonny Gray and UCLA's Gerrit Cole.

The weather calls for cloudy skies and 70 degrees.

We may be back with some potential video from Andrew Giobbi (if he didn't lose the camera) at some point this weekend and a special appearance from Stache Jones, last seen interviewing Richie Goodenow while the leaf blowers drowned out the answers.

Video: Postgame with Richie Goodenow

Complete Recap: Vanderbilt 2, Austin Peay 1 (11)

Junior reliever Richie Goodenow talks with Eric "Stooche" Jones following Vanderbilt's 2-1 win over Austin Peay in 11 innings Tuesday night at Hawkins Field.

Fall Baseball Update

by Eric Jones - It's hard to pass up a 75 degree day in October with Hawkins Field right across the street from the McGugin Center.

With the Black and Gold Series starting in just a week, I thought I might check out the Commodore baseball scrimmage on Thursday. It turned out to be the closest I got to a Cape Cod summer. There are a good many new faces to learn and as many nicknames to ponder. Today was all about names that you may have heard as veteran pitching highlighted the six-inning intrasquad that ended 4-2. Sophomore Jack Armstrong continued to build off of a very strong summer pitching for Wareham in the Cape Cod League (4-1, 2.57 ERA, 31K in 35 IP). Jack combined with Taylor Hill (2-1, 1.44 ERA, 35K in 31.1IP for Chatham in the Cape) for an impressive performance. In a three-inning start, Armstrong brought the heat striking out 4 including the side to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning. Armstrong was followed by Hill who retired all nine batters he faced with four punchouts to preserve the win.

Richie Goodenow started on the other side of the scorecard working three solid innings, but was victimized by some defensive miscues which allowed two unearned runs. Russell Brewer followed Richie to the mound and threw three scoreless innings with two strikeouts. Brewer was another top summer performer in the Cape where he teamed with Taylor Hill at Chatham. As closer, Russell was 2-1, with a 1.90 ERA and 33K's in 23.1 innings while finishing second in the entire Cape Cod League with 10 saves. The bottom line on this particular day - the summer seems to have been good for Commodore pitching. You can check out all the Commodore who played in the CCL and their summer stats (http://www.capecodbaseball.org/) for yourself.

Another New England Nugget: Freshman Regan Flaherty started at first base and went 2-for-2 with an RBI single and a double. His lefthanded swing is similar to his brother Ryan's and the speed (or lack thereof) was also evident as he got thrown out by homeplate umpire Sonny Gray trying to score from second on a Jordan Wormsley single.

I was just happy that Sonny Gray didn't throw his valuable right arm out of his socket when he called Flaherty out at the plate. Sonny has been watching too many Kimbo Slice snippets on YouTube.

Black and Gold Series: The Black and Gold Series will start on Thursday, October 15. Tim Corbin announced yesterday that the annual fall event will be going to a five-game series: October 15, 16, 18, 19, and 20. All games are scheduled to be broadcast via live audio on vucommodores.com. Stay tuned for times.