Dores Handle Falcons

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt baseball completed its stretch of five games in five days Tuesday with a 5-2 win over Air Force at Hawkins Field to move to 4-1 on the season.

The Commodores collected nine hits in the win while holding the Falcons to five. Vandy used seven arms in the win and totaled 16 strikeouts. Jakob Schulz earned the win and Ryan Ginther tallied his sixth career save.

Brennan Seiber made his second career start and held Air Force scoreless over the first three innings while recording six strikeouts.

Vanderbilt opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Mac Rose worked a walk. Rustan Rigdon singled to put runners on the corners and Chris Maldonado clubbed a double off the wall in left to plate Rose.

Jacob Humphrey followed with a single to score Rigdon to give the Dores a 2-0 lead.

Air Force pulled even with a pair of run in the top of the sixth. The Commodores responded to go back on top in the seventh.

Humphrey led off the inning with a triple and came home on a sac fly by Jonathan Vastine. RJ Austin then hit another triple and beat the throw home on a fielder’s choice to double Vandy’s lead to 4-2.

JD Rogers drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the eighth and Maldonado singled to put runners on the corners. Humphrey laid down a perfectly-placed bunt for a safety squeeze as Rogers raced home and increased Vanderbilt’s lead to three.

Safety squeeze makes it 5-2 Dores in the eighth! pic.twitter.com/w9zl8fPVj3

— Vanderbilt Baseball (@VandyBoys) February 18, 2025

Ginther made his first appearance of the season on the mound to start the ninth with a 5-2 lead. After a leadoff single, the lefty struck out the next three batters for the save.

Humphrey went 3-for-4 on the day with a pair of RBI. Austin, Rigdon and Maldonado collected two hits apiece.

Through their first five games, the Commodores are hitting .271 as a team while holding opponents to a .233 clip. The pitching staff has a 3.60 ERA with 69 strikeouts over the first 45.0 innings.

Next up for Vanderbilt is a weekend home series against Saint Mary’s (Calif.) beginning Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Hawkins Field.