April 16, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Vanderbilt’s pitching staff held Western Kentucky to just one run on five hits in a 5-1 win Wednesday night at Nick Denes Field.
The Commodores won their seventh straight to improve to 26-10, while the Hilltoppers fell to 20-16 on the year.
Chase Reid gave up a run in the first and after that Mark Lamm, Richie Goodenow and Brett Jacobson held the WKU offense in check for eight shutout innings.
Lamm (1-0) picked up the win, pitching four shutout innings, allowing just two hits while striking out four to pick up his first collegiate win. Brett Jacobson pitched the final 2.2 innings to pick up his second save of the year.
The Commodores took a 1-0 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly RBI by Dominic de la Osa. David Macias led off the game with a hot shot to third that wasn’t handled allowing him to reach. Alex Feinberg was hit by a pitch and after a flyout by Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Flaherty walked to load the bases. De la Osa then flied out to right to score Macias.
Terrence Dayleg’s RBI double in the bottom of the first tied the game at 1-1.
Brian Harris’ RBI groundout in the second put VU back on top 2-1. Andrew Giobbi singled, moved to second on a groundout by Parker Hanks, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He then scored on Harris’ grounder to third.
Mark Lamm got out of a tough situation in the bottom of the sixth when Scott Kaskie led off with a double and the potent part of the Hilltopper order coming up. Lamm persevered through the jam getting Terrence Dayleg to line out to right, striking out slugger Chad Cregar looking and then getting Wade Gaynor to line out to center to end the inning.
“It was real big to fill up the zone after giving up the double,” said Lamm. “Being able to pitch through that and get the strikeout and then Curt (Casali) made a great stab to not let a run score on a changeup in the dirt. It was good to leave the runner stranded and not let them get the momentum back.”
Vanderbilt took advantage of two Western Kentucky errors in the eighth to plate three insurance runs to push the lead to 5-1. Pedro Alvarez led off the inning with a fly ball to left that was dropped by Matt Rice. Alvarez moved to second on the fielding miscue and then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Flaherty. He then scored when the Hilltoppers failed to call time out after the bunt, sliding into catcher J.B. Paxson and tagging home plate. The Dores added another run on a throwing error by Paxson on a strikeout of Steven Liddle on a pitch in the dirt. Harris then doubled to left to score the third run, all unearned.
Macias led the Commodores with two hits on the night, while Kaskie led the Hilltoppers with two of his own.
Matt Hightower was the tough luck loser for WKU, allowing two runs, one earned on five hits in six innings of work with five strikeouts and three walks.
The Dores will return home for a three-game series against Auburn starting on Friday at 6 p.m. The teams will play on Saturday at noon in a game televised regionally by CSS. Sunday’s game is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch.
Vanderbilt 110 000 030 -5 6 0
Western Kentucky 100 000 000 -1 5 3
Reid, Lamm (3), Goodenow (7), Jacobson (7) and Casali. Hightower, Davis, Teague (8), Jenney (8), Krueger (8), Balcom (8) and Paxson. W-Lamm 1-0, L- Hightower 3-3. Sv- Jacobson (2). HR: VU: None. WKU: None.
