NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sonny Gray threw eight innings of three-hit shutout baseball to lead Vanderbilt to a 9-0 win over Niagara in the 2010 season opener Friday night at Hawkins Field.
Gray (1-0), a sophomore preseason All-American, struck out eight batters and didn’t allow a batter to reach second base until the eighth inning. He walked just one batter while tying a career-high in innings pitched. Dating back to last season, the right-hander has not allowed a run in his last 17 and 2/3 innings with 21 strikeouts and just two walks while giving up 11 hits.
“It was nice to stretch out Sonny with around 90 pitches over eight innings,” said Vanderbilt head coach Corbin. “I thought he was very prudent with his pitches and that’s what we ask the pitchers to do.”
Redshirt freshman hurler Corey Williams made his first collegiate appearance in the ninth and struck out two batters to preserve the shutout. It is the Commodores third shutout in the their last five games dating back to 2009.
Niagara starter Marcus Spaulding (0-1) held VU in check until the fourth, when the Commodores took advantage of two fielding errors to plate five runs and take a 5-0 lead. Joe Loftus started the scoring with a RBI double, and freshman Mike Yastrzemski had a two-run double in the frame while Jason Esposito added a RBI single and Aaron Westlake a sacrifice fly RBI to account for the runs.
The Dores added four more runs in the sixth with Loftus coming up with a two-run single in the frame. He finished the day 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Westlake, the Southeastern Conference’s leading hitter a year ago, went 3-for-4, while Curt Casali added two hits of his own to help lead the way.
The Commodores and Purple Eagles will play the second game of the three game set tomorrow at 1 p.m. Junior right-hander Taylor Hill will take the mound for the Dores, while Niagara is expected to start lefthander Dan Morari.
