Oct. 26, 2007
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sophomore Mike Minor handcuffed the Gold for five no-hit innings to lead the Black squad to a 7-4 win Friday night at Hawkins Field.
The win evened the three-game set at one win apiece with Sunday’s finale determining the series winner.
Minor struck out four and allowed just a first inning walk in picking up where he left off last season as a Freshman All-American.
“I liked the way Mike started things off,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. “He shut down the Gold with five or six really good hitters. The Black played really good defense with a very nice unassisted double play in the ninth.”
The Black jumped out with three runs in the top of the first, two of them coming off a triple by Parker Hanks who has had a huge series for the Black. A RBI groundout by Alex Feinberg made it 3-0. They added another run in the second on a sacrifice fly by Brian Harris.
Aaron Westlake’s sac fly RBI in the fifth made it 5-0 and the Black added two more runs on back to back homers by Hanks and Feinberg to extend the lead to 7-0.
The Gold made one last charge at coming back in the bottom of the eighth, scoring four runs to cut the deficit to 7-4. Steven Liddle led off with a single off of Jared Cohen. Joey Manning walked and Gabe Ortiz followed with a double to left that scored Liddle. Drew Fann came up with a RBI single and Dominic de la Osa added one of his own later in the frame to make it 7-4. The Gold had runners on the corners with two outs and Pedro Alvarez representing the tying run at the plate, but Drew Hayes came on and struck him out to end the threat.
Russell Brewer took over on the mound for the Black in the sixth and did not allow a run in two innings of three-hit work. Cohen came on in relief in the eighth and allowed four runs on five hits in 0.2 innings with a walk and a strikeout. Hayes pitched the final 1.1 with a strikeout to pick up the save.
“It was nice to see Drew Hayes come in at the end and shut things down. He showed me something,” said Corbin. “We scrimmaged before Fall Break and he came in with the bases loaded and the wind blowing about 90 miles an hour and he struck out a hitter to end the inning. I think for him, those are good things to see when the game is on the line.”
Jason Cunningham took the loss for the Gold after giving up four runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings of work. He struck out four and walked one in the start. Kellen St. Luce relieved him in the fourth and allowed one unearned run in 2.1 innings with four walks and two strikeouts. Richie Goodenow closed it out, giving up two runs on four hits in three innings with four strikeouts.
Hanks led the Black with a 3-for-5 showing with three RBI and three runs scored. David Macias, Aaron Westlake and Adam Cronk contributed to the 12 hit Black attack with two hits each. Dominic de la Osa, Joey Manning and Gabe Ortiz each had two hits to lead the Gold.
“Parker has hit the ball hard with a triple and a home run and has come through in clutch situations,” Corbin added. “He is seeing it well and has some confidence and is fighting for playing time this year. Every time he comes through with games like that, it gives him more ammo for his case to play. That is what it has come down to with this team, its an older team and there is a lot of competition out there. You have games like that and it separates you from the rest of the pack, at least for a while.”
The teams will take tomorrow off before closing the series and fall practice out on Sunday at 1 p.m.
