NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 8th-ranked Vanderbilt baseball team used a strong outing from Tyler Beede and a 15-hit output from its offense to take the series opener against Winthrop, 9-1, Friday night at Hawkins field.
Winthrop (6-7) threatened in the first, tagging Beede for three hits to the first four batters, but the 6-foot-4 junior induced an inning ending 1-2-3 double play to get out of the frame without allowing a run.
Vanderbilt (13-2) jumped on the board in the bottom of the inning after a two-out RBI single from Xavier Turner, driving in Dansby Swanson, and never looked back. Both Swanson and Turner finished with career highs with four hits.
After Beede allowed a homerun to Leighton Daniels in the top of the third the Vandy offense responded with two of its own. The Commodores pushed the first of two across after back-to-back doubles to start the inning from Swanson and Bryan Reynolds. Zander Wiel moved Reynolds to third for Rhett Wiseman who hit a sac fly to left to give VU the 3-1 advantage.
Vanderbilt would push two more across in the bottom of the fourth and four more in the seventh.
Chris Harvey, who finished the day 3-for-4 at the plate, led off the fourth with a base hit and was driven home on a Reynolds groundout to short. John Norwood who walked during the inning was the sixth Vandy runner to cross the plate, scoring on a balk from Winthrop’s Brock Goodling.
Doubles from Vince Conde, Swanson and Turner led the `Dores who put up four more runs on five hits in the seventh inning.
After allowing the homerun to Daniels in the third, Beede settled in over the next four innings allowing just two hits. He finished the game throwing 91 pitches over seven innings, striking out eight while not allowing a walk.
Adam Ravenelle and Ben Bowden closed it out for the Commodores. Ravenelle pitched a perfect eighth, recording two K’s; while the freshman Bowden struck out two in the ninth and allowed a walk.
The second game of the series is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday at Hawkins Field. Jared Miller (3-0, 0.50 ERA) will take the mound for the Commodores and face-off against Joey Strain (2-1, 2.45 ERA) for the Eagles.
