The late start time and deadline will collide here in a little while, and the blog is what will suffer. I’ll have some udpates but not as many as I usually do.
Keenan Wiley is in the batter’s box now, and the game is under way.
– PA
LSU has just defeated Vanderbilt 8-2 and advances to Saturday’s play in the winner’s bracket. The approximate start time for the Ole Miss-Kentucky game is 8:40, more than two hours earlier than last night’s time for Alabama-Kentucky.
– PA
Alabama just beat Georgia 5-2 in the second game. The 5 p.m. game between LSU and Vanderbilt should start between 5 and 5:10. Please guys, no extras.
– PA
It was a scary moment last night when Georgia sophomore Matt Cerione hit the wall after making a catch on a really hard hit by Matt Smith, the best swing Smith had last night.
The wall is padded, but Cerione, a sophomore from Alpharetta, Ga., collided head-on with a beam behind the padding.
He laid motionless on the ground for what seemed like several minutes until he was finally helped to his feet by training staff. You could tell how groggy he was.
Cerione has been diagnosed with a mild concussion. He is with the team at the stadium right now but is not in the starting lineup for the Bulldogs’ elimination game against Alabama which will start not too long from now.
He will be available to play later in the tournament.
A .276 hitter with six home runs, he was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts last night.
– PA
Ole Miss will throw freshman left-hander Drew Pomeranz against Kentucky in tonight’s late game which will start any time between 8 p.m. and midnight.
Pomeranz is 4-3 but has not won since an April 19 decision at South Carolina. He’s given up at least six runs in three of his last four starts, the exception beging at Georgia on May 3 when he went 6 1-3 innings with five hits, four runs and five walks.
Last Friday at Kentucky Pomeranz went 3 1-3 innings and gave up seven hits, six runs, five earned, two walks and struck out five in a game the Rebels lost 9-0.
Kentucky will start right-hander James Paxton. He’s 4-2 with a 2.57 ERA. He just blanked the Rebels in that same 9-0 game. He gave up seven hits, struck out six and did not walk a batter.
– PA
What’s great about hotel rooms is that you can make them really dark, and therefore when you get back from the ballpark at midnight you won’t be awakaned by sunlight creeping in the next morning.
I got up and started stirring about 8:30.
I suspect many Kentucky players are not stirring yet. The Wildcats defefated Alabama 9-3 last night, excuse me, this morning. The game started at 10:50 p.m. and was completed at almost 2 a.m. That’s what the 10 a.m. start time for game 1 gets you.
The Rebels and Wildcats have a scheduled start time for 8 p.m., but that’s a joke. Many games aren’t complete in three hours, and there’s a mandated 45 minutes between games.
At present, I don’t know who Kentucky is planning to pitch. UK coach John Cohen threw a reliever last night, Aaron Lovett, and I was at the stadium long enough to see Alabama rack him with four stright hits in the first, but he settled down and threw a complete game. It was his first career start.
No word on who Ole Miss will throw either, which is interesting. Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco continues to strongly support freshman Drew Pomeranz, but Pomeranz has gotten hit around pretty good in three of his last four starts. Bianco named only a Game 1 starter before the tournament began and was non-committal when asked who would start Game 2.
– PA
