Nov. 23, 2014
The Commodores opened their Dominican Republic trip with a 9-4 victory over the Dominican National Army team on Sunday afternoon.
The Dores opend the game with a bang when Dansby Swanson hammered the second pitch of the game over the left field wall for a solo shot. Swanson was in the mix again in the third inning when he doubled with one out and swapped places with Rhett Wiseman for a 2-0 Vandy lead.
Staked to an early lead starter John Kilichowski rolled through the first four innings allowing no hits and only two base runners. The lefty found trouble near the end of his outing in the sixth after a single and a walk with two outs brought up the Army team’s cleanup hitter. The inning and the at-bat turned when a borderline pitch was called a ball and the next pitch was smashed over the left field wall for a three-run homer to put the Dores down one run. Kilichowski rebounded to strikeout the next batter and end the inning.
The Commodores rewarded the southpaw in the seventh rallying for five runs on two hits. Tyler Campbell drew a leadoff walked and moved to third when Ro Coleman’s sacrifice bunt attempt was misplayed. Campbell tied the game on a wild pitch before Zander Wiel came through with a clutch, two-out two-run double to put Vandy back in front. Will Toffey capped the rally with a two-run homer to center field.
Swanson and Toffey wrapped up the days scoring and put the game away in the ninth when Swanson doubled and came around to score on Toffey’s two-run double.
Kilichowski was solid in the win working six strong innings. The lefty punched out six and scattered three hits. Hayden Stone bailed the Commodores out of a bases loaded nobody out situation in the eighth when the right-hander entered and struck out the first batters he faced before ending the threat with a ground ball to Swanson.
Swanson paced the offense reaching base in four his five at-bats with two doubles and a solo homer while Toffey drove in four with a two-run homer and two-run double. Wiseman scored two runs and doubled in an run with Wiel driving in the team’s other two runs.
The Commodores return to action tomorrow with two split squad games. The Dores will be divided into two teams and play two games at the same time against Major League Baseball Dominican Academy teams from the Rangers and Rays.
