BATON ROUGE, La. – Joe Loftus’ two-out, two-run single in the top of the eighth, broke a 2-2 tie game, and the Commodores held off a late ninth-inning rally by LSU to earn a 4-3 win over LSU at Alex Box Stadium on Sunday. Vanderbilt took two of three from the Tigers this weekend, marking their third straight regular season series win over LSU.
With the win, Vanderbilt improved to 35-13 overall and 12-10 in the Southeastern Conference while the loss drops LSU to 34-15 overall and 12-12 in league play.
Anthony Gomez led off the eighth with a walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jason Esposito. The Tigers intentionally walked Aaron Westlake and closer Matty Ott then struck out Curt Casali for the second out of the inning. Andrew Giobbi reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases as the Commodores were running on the pitch and Westlake beat shortstop Austin Nola’s throw to second. Joe Loftus then singled up the middle to score two and give the Dores a 4-2 lead.
Things got interesting in the ninth, when LSU’s Matt Gaudet and Wet Delatte reached base with one out. Following Delatte’s single, Tyler Hanover cut into Vanderbilt’s lead when he recorded an RBI-single through the left side to make it a 4-3 game. The Tigers then had a final chance to tie the game when they had runners on first and second before Gray put Mikie Mahtook down on strikes and got Austin Nola to ground out to third to end the game.
“I thought the biggest play of the game was when we beat what would have been a routine fielder’s choice into an infield hit because we had two guys running,” Head Coach Tim Corbin said. “After that Loftus came up with a big hit that found the hole in middle of the field.”
For the second straight game, Vanderbilt got a stellar pitching performance out of their starter as Jack Armstrong gave up two runs on six hits in 7.2 innings of work with three strikeouts and two walks. With the win, Armstrong improved to 6-1 on the year.
“We got a great performance out of Jack today and he did a great job of keeping the ball down in the zone and mixing his pitches,” Corbin said.
Armstrong got the first two outs in the eighth before Micah Gibbs singled to right. VU went to the bullpen, bringing in Friday night starter Sonny Gray who struck out Alex Edward on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
Gray earned his first save of the year after allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts in 1.1 innings of relief.
“We put Sonny into a difficult situation at the end of the game and you need a good heart-beat to pitch in this stadium and he responded by closing it out,” Corbin said.
Brian Harris led off the game with a homer to left-center to give the Commodores an early 1-0 lead. It was his fourth homer of the year and the first since hitting one against Wofford on March 31.
The Tigers came right back to tie the game in the bottom half on Alex Edward’s single to left-center. VU starter recorded two outs to the start the frame before walking Blake Dean. Micah Gibbs singled to left-center and Edward followed with his single that tied the game at 1-1.
VU took the lead back in the third on Harris’ RBI single to center field. Mike Yastrzemski was hit by a pitch with one out and then scored from first on Harris’s looping single to center on a hit and run. LSU centerfielder Leon Landry came in to make the play, but dropped his glove and went back to retrieve it. That allowed the hustling Yastrzemski to come all the way in to score.
The back and forth continued in the bottom half as the Tigers plated another two-out run on Edward’s second RBI single of the contest. Gibbs doubled down the left-field line with two outs and scored on Edwards single through the left side. The throw from leftfielder Mike Yastrzemski was cut off by third baseman Jason Esposito as Gibbs came in to tie the game.
The Commodores will return to Nashville and play Top 10 ranked Louisville on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Hawkins Field. Remaining tickets (1,300) are available for free with donations being accepted for the Nashville chapter of the American Red Cross at the game.
For more info on the game check out: http://vucommodores.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/2010-flood-relief.html
