Nashville, Tenn. — No. 8 Vanderbilt used a pair of three-run innings to top Western Kentucky 6-1 Tuesday night at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores’ (35-10) first three-run rally came in the third inning and put the home team in front to stay. Jeren Kendall worked a leadoff walk to open the frame and moved to second when Ethan Paul was hit by a pitch. With one down in the inning, freshman Julian Infante’s triple to the wall in right-center field scored Kendall and Paul to put Vanderbilt up 2-1. Two batters later freshman Walker Grisanti scored Infante with an infield single for a 3-1 lead.
Bryan Reynolds sparked the Dores’ second three-run rally in the eighth inning to put the game away, doubling down the left field line. Infante struck again, smashing a double of his own down the left line to score Reynolds. Will Toffey worked a walk before Nolan Rogers’ sacrifice bunt moved Infante and Toffey into scoring position for Karl Ellison. The junior got the job done against a drawn-in Western Kentucky (24-21) defense with a ground ball to second baseman Steven Kraft, who threw home late and wide allowing both Infante and Toffey to score and cap the rally.
Freshman Matt McGarry earned his first career start and picked up his first career victory with three innings of work. The right-hander had a shaky start, walking the first two batters of the game before getting a pair of fly outs. A two-out single by Harrison Scanlon scored the first run of the game before McGarry registered his first strikeout to end the inning. The freshman settled down working around a two-out double in the second to hang a zero on the scoreboard before turning in a perfect third inning to end his night.
Collin Snider worked the Commodores out of a jam in the sixth after Ryan Johnson allowed a pair of singles to put the tying run on base. Snider struck out the next two batters to strand the two WKU runners. Matt Ruppenthal struck out the side in the eighth and Ben Bowden punched out a pair in the ninth to finish off the win.
Infante led the way with a career-best two hits and three RBI. He now has 11 RBI in his last five games. Reynolds collected two hits to push his hitting streak to six games.
Hilltoppers starter Cody Coll took the loss allowing three runs on five hits over 6.2 innings. Scanlon had two hits and drove in the Toppers’ lone run.
Vanderbilt hits the road for the program’s first-ever trip to No. 2 Texas A&M this weekend with the series beginning Thursday night at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.
