Nov. 29, 2014
The Commodores stepped up in competition for the last two days of their Dominican Republic trip, squaring off against the reserves from Winter League teams Escogido and Licey and splitting the two games with a 5-3 win over Escogido on Thursday and a 3-0 loss to Licey on Friday.
Against the Licey Tigers on Friday, a three-run first inning sunk the Dores in the loss. Vandy starter Carson Fulmer allowed four straight hits in the opening frame to yield the three runs. The junior right-hander bounced back quickly, not allowing another hit until two outs in his final inning in the fourth. Relievers Ben Bowden, Collin Snider and Tyler Ferguson finished off the final four innings not allowing a hit or a base runner.
The Commodores looked to answer the Tigers’ three-run first in the second when Kyle Smith singled and Jason Delay followed with a double to put runners on second and third with one out but Licey’s veteran pitching staff shut down the rally with a pair of strikeouts. The Dores’ scoring threat in the second was the team’s best scoring opportunity on the afternoon.
Rhett Wiseman led the way for VU in the loss reaching base three times with a walk and two singles. The team’s four pitchers combined to strikeout nine with no walks.
On Thursday, the Commodores took advantage of a two-out error in the first inning to scratch out a pair of runs and never looked back in the 5-3 victory.
Bryan Reynolds reached on error by the first baseman before Zander Wiel crushed a double to right-center field to chase Reynolds home. Will Toffey capped the rally with a single to score Wiel to take a two-run lead. Dansby Swanson smashed his second home run of the trip with a towering shot to left field in the third to push the lead to three runs. The Lions battled back to tie the game in the sixth before the Dores put the game away with back-to-back doubles from Drake Parker and Karl Ellison in the seventh and two more runs in the eighth. Rhett Wiseman led off the eighth with a solo home run to right field and Reynolds came around to score after reaching on a single.
Walker Buehler was solid over his four innings of a start and Hayden Stone punched out five in 2.1 innings out of the pen. Jordan Sheffield worked a perfect inning in the ninth to notch the save.
The Commodores wrapped up the trip going 5-2 to end the team’s fall season.
Vanderbilt opens the 2015 season against Santa Clara on Feb. 15.
