NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sophomore right-hander Sonny Gray threw seven innings of four-hit scoreless baseball to lead Vanderbilt to a 7-0 win over Kentucky in Southeastern Conference baseball action Friday night at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores improved to 19-4 overall and 2-2 in SEC play, while Kentucky fell to 16-6 and 1-3 in league play.
It was VU’s first shutout against Kentucky since an 8-0 win in the series opener in 2005.
Gray (4-2) struck out six and walked three in seven innings, before giving way to redshirt freshman Corey Williams who held the Wildcats to just one hit in two innings of work with two strikeouts and a walk.
“We played good defense and Sonny and Corey were pretty good,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. “Sonny allowed three walks, but they didn’t hit him too much and he was very sharp in getting through seven innings, which was needed on a Friday night.
UK’s Logan Darnell (3-2) took the loss, allowing seven runs, five earned, on nine hits in 5.1 innings with three strikeouts and four walks.
Bryan Johns, Jason Esposito, Connor Harrell and Anthony Gomez each had two hits to lead VU’s 11 hit attack.
The Commodores got on the board in the first on a two-out RBI single by Andrew Giobbi. They added two more runs in the third on two-out RBI singles by Curt Casali and Connor Harrell to make it 3-0.
Brian Harris led off the fourth with a double and advanced to third on a single to left-center by Johns. He scored when Aaron Westlake grounded into a double play.
The Dores put the game away with a three-run sixth as Johns had a RBI single and Harris scored on a fielding error on a rundown play at third base for the first two runs of the frame. Jason Esposito closed things out with a RBI single to right on a drawn in infield to make it 7-0.
“I thought the two-out hit was what we lived off of,” said Corbin. “We kind of nickel and dimed our way to runs, but Giobbi’s two-out hit in the first and Casali’s and Harrell’s back-to-back two out RBI hits in the third were big for us.”
The Commodores and Wildcats will play the second game of the series tomorrow at 2 p.m. Junior right-hander Taylor Hill (3-1, 2.90 ERA) will take the mound for VU, while UK will start freshman southpaw Taylor Rogers (3-1, 4.75 ERA).
There is the potential of a doubleheader tomorrow depending on the weather forecast Saturday morning. If it shows a significant chance of rain on Sunday, forecast is 100% as of Friday night, then the coaches will petition the league office to play the doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. Check vucommodores.com on Saturday morning for more information.
Photo by Jimmy Jones
