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HOOVER, Ala. — Vanderbilt pounded out 14 hits and snapped a five-game losing streak with a 7-3 win over Florida in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Wednesday afternoon at Regions Park.
The Commodores, who were swept in a three-game series to the Gators last weekend, moved to 38-18 overall while UF dropped to 34-21 on the year. Vanderbilt is now 6-0 all time against them in the SEC tourney.
“It’s a win, and for us that’s big because we had a tough weekend at Florida,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. “They are very disciplined at the plate and really make you throw strikes. When they are successful, they get you really deep into the pitch count.”
VU, the No. 6 seed, will face No. 2 seed LSU tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the winner’s bracket contest. The Tigers (40-16-1) rallied from a 4-0 ninth inning deficit to South Carolina, tying the game in the ninth and winning it on a walk-off homer by Blake Dean in the tenth. They have now won 17 straight and are unbeaten in their last 18.
Mike Minor gave up three runs on five hits in five innings of work to pick up the win to move to 6-3 on the year. It was his first win since defeating Tennessee on May 2.
“Florida is a good hitting team,” said Minor. “They are very well-disciplined. They made my pitch count go up, but overall I though it was a good day for both teams. We had to work really hard today.”
The Commodores took a 1-0 lead in the first when Dominic de la Osa was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Ryan Flaherty’s RBI single to left.
Cole Figueroa’s RBI single in the bottom half tied the game at 1-1.
The Dores stormed back for three runs in the second to take a 4-1 lead. Steven Liddle led off with a single, the first of three hits for him on the day, and Andrew Giobbi followed with a base knock to right. Alex Feinberg then hit a sharp grounder to second that bounced past UF second baseman Jon Townsend allowing Liddle to score and moving Giobbi to second. Jonathan White sacrificed both runners up a base before David Macias hit a RBI single to right to score the second run in the frame. De la Osa added a RBI grounder to score Feinberg to make it 4-1.
VU added a run in the fourth and another in the sixth on a Macias sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 6-1.
Hampton Tignor and Jon Townsend had RBI singles in the sixth to cut the deficit to 6-3.
That would be all the Gators would score as Drew Hayes pitched 3.1 innings of scoreless relief, with Richie Goodenow and Russell Brewer recording an out each to end the game. Brewer picked up his sixth save of the year after recording the final out.
VU closed out the game scoring with a run in the ninth to make it 7-3.
Giobbi and Liddle led the Dores with three hits each, while de la Osa and Jonathan White added two of their own.
Vanderbilt 130 101 001 -7 14 2
Florida 100 002 000 -3 8 1
Minor, Hayes (6), Goodenow (9), Brewer ( and Robin. Keating, Davis (7), Mullaney (8), LaCoste (9), Franklin (9) and Tignor. W- Minor 6-3, L- Keating 8-1 Sv- None. HR: VU: None UF: None
