NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No. 5 Vanderbilt recorded the team’s fourth shutout victory on Wednesday night with an 8-0 one-hit win over Quinnipiac at Hawkins Field.
After a long top of the first, the Commodores’ (13-4) offense jumped on the Bobcats (2-8) for two runs in the bottom of the inning. Penn Murfee, starting his first game in the leadoff spot, worked a walk and immediately scored on Rhett Wiseman’s double. Wiseman later came around to score on a double play ball for a 2-0 lead. Dansby Swanson added a two-run homer to left field in the third to push the lead to four runs. The round tripper for Swanson was his second of the season.
Ryan Johnson entered the game in the top of the second with the bases loaded and nobody out to protect the Dores’ 2-0 lead. The lefty quickly ended the Bobcats’ threat with a pop up and a pair of punch outs. The three quick outs started a streak of 15 straight retired for Johnson, who tossed five perfect innings of relief to earn his first collegiate win. Johnson struck out the side in the third and added two more in the fourth before ending his night with back-to-back strikeouts in the sixth. The redshirt freshman racked up a career-best nine strikeouts and left the Commodores’ no-hit bid in the hands of his fellow relievers.
Matt Ruppenthal entered in the seventh and navigated a one-out walk thanks to two strikeouts in his first inning of work to take the Commodores’ no hitter into the eighth. The freshman struck out the leadoff hitter to open the eighth but Quinnipiac right fielder Julius Saporito broke up the no-no with a soft liner into center field. Ben Bowden finished off the one-hitter in the ninth by striking out the side. Four Vanderbilt pitchers combined to strike out 16 batters on Wednesday to match a team season-high.
The Vandy offense stretched the lead in the middle innings with four more runs. RBI-singles from Bryan Reynolds and Jeren Kendall added to the lead and two runs in the seventh helped wrap up the two-game sweep of the Bobcats.
Swanson led the way offensively for VU with three hits, two RBI and three runs scored. He and Wiseman each pushed their hitting streaks to 11 games with first inning hits. Wiseman added two hits and three runs scored of his own to go along with his RBI-double.
Quinnipiac starter Justin Thomas took the loss allowing five runs on six hits over 4.2 innings.
Vanderbilt opens Southeastern Conference play on Friday night against Arkansas. The three-game series is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Hawkins Field on SEC Network+.
