Louisville, Ky. – No. 2 Vanderbilt hammered No. 12 Louisville 10-2 at Patterson Field Tuesday night to win the Battle of the Barrel for the second straight year.
The Cardinals (30-10) climbed back into the game in the fifth inning with a run but the Commodores (36-6) responded in a big way in the sixth. With Connor Harrell on first base and one out, Zander Wiel stepped up to the plate and blasted his third home run in his last three games with a towering two-run homer to left field. Spencer Navin followed with a single and came around to score on Vince Conde’s RBI-double to make it a four-run fifth inning. The Dores piled on late with Conde hitting a three-run homer to left field to set the final score at 10-2.
Vandy staked starter Walker Buehler to an early lead with a run in the first inning and the freshman went to work. Buehler cruised through the first four innings allowing only one hit before the Cardinals got to him in the fifth. Jeff Gardner led off the inning with a double and came around to score on Zak Wasserman’s single. After a walk put runners on first and second with one out Buehler got Adam Engel to pop up a bunt. Buehler caught the bunt and fired to first for the double play to end the Louisville threat. Buehler (3-1) earned the win allowing one run on four hits over 5.1 innings.
The Vanderbilt offense collected 14 hits on the night to mark the 10th time in the last 11 games the team has had at least 10 hits. Four Dores had multi-hit games in the victory led by Jack Lupo and Tony Kemp, who had three hits each. Conde matched his career-best with four RBI and Mike Yastrzemski chipped in three more RBI.
Louisville starter Kyle McGrath (5-1) took the loss allowing two runs, one earned, on three hits over 3.1 innings. McGrath was the first of nine pitchers used in the game by the home team. Wasserman had two hits and drove in both runs for the Cardinals.
The Commodores return to action Friday night at Hawkins Field when No. 16 Mississippi State comes to Nashville. The Dores and Bulldogs are scheduled to play Friday night at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 12 p.m. on CSS and Sunday at 1 p.m.
