The Vanderbilt Commodores head down to Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles as both squads are looking to head to Omaha this season. The Commodores enter the weekend with a 45-18 overall record after going 4-1 in the Louisville Regional. They opened the Regional with a victory over Illious State 8-7 (13 innings) before dropping a 7-1 decision to Louisville. They proceeded to go on a three game winning streak with another victory over Illinois State (10-4) before defeating Louisville twice (7-0 and 3-2 10 innings) to qualify for the Super Regionals. The Florida State Seminoles enter with a 45-17 overall record after going a perfect 3-0 in the Norwich (CT) Regional. They defeated Central Connecticut State in the opener 11-3 (Full Recap) before defeating Oregon twice by scores of 6-4 (Full Recap) and 5-3. (Full Recap).
The Commodores have a team batting average of .309 while hitting 58 homers. The offense is led by Jason Esposito who is hitting .359 with 10 homers and 59 RBI. He also leads the team with 30 stolen bases in 34 attempts. Aaron Westlake leads the team with a .308 batting average with 14 homers and 58 RBI. The odd stat is the fact that Brian Harris has been hit by 36 pitches this year while only having 63 hits on the entire season.
The pitching staff for Vanderbilt has a team ERA of 3.58. They are led by starting pitchers Sonny Gray and Taylor Hill. Gray is 9-5 on the year with a 3.51 ERA in 102.2 innings pitched while striking out 110 batters. Hill is 6-5 with a 4.15 ERA in 102 innings pitched. Hill has struggled with keeping the ball in teh park as he leads the team by giving up 11 homers. Chase Reid has served as the closer this season with a 4-1 record including three saves with a 3.25 ERA.
The Florida State Seminoles enter the weekend with a .300 batting average. Tyler Holt leads the squad with a batting average of .349 with 12 homers and 49 RBI. He also has been excellent on the basepaths with 29 stolen bases in 31 attempts and having a fielding percentage of .991. Mike McGee has been the biggest power threat with 14 on the year with a team high 67 RBI. Stephen Cardullo is also a threat on the bases while being perfect by going 20 for 20.
The Noles pitching staff has a team ERA of 4.31. Sean Gilmartin has been the ace of the staff the last two years but struggled this this as he was only 8-7 with a 4.74 ERA in 17 appearances (16 starts). Brian Busch has been serving as the number two starter for the last couple of weeks as he has a 5-1 record with a 4.24 ERA. Mike McGee is one of the top closer’s in the country with a 4-0 record and a minuscule 0.38.
