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ATHENS, Ga. — Vanderbilt banged out a season-high 23 hits and routed Georgia 15-4 to claim the three-game series Sunday afternoon at Foley Field.
The Commodores won their sixth straight Southeastern Conference series to improve to 41-9 overall and 17-7 in league play. The 17 wins is a new school record in conference action.
The Bulldogs fell to 19-30 on the year and 8-16 in league action.
The two stars of the game were Alex Feinberg with a career best 5-for-5 day with six RBI and Ty Davis with 6.2 innings of no-hit shutout relief to move to 2-0 on the year.
“You never go out there expecting to go 5-for-5 because if you do you end up putting too much pressure on yourself,” said Feinberg. “The only way it happens is if you have a good approach at every at bat.”
Davis came in the game in a tough situation in the third with Vanderbilt holding a 5-4 lead with the go ahead runner at second and only one out. The first batter he faced reached on an error to load the bases and after that he struck out Joey Lewis and got Travis Parrott to fly out to center to end the threat.
“Ty was outstanding today, as good as I have seen him pitch,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. “In my mind he pitched a perfect game with no hits and no walks and just the error in the third. He pitched as well as he possibly could and he came in at the right time in a game that was still in question. He’s back to where he was at this point last year.”
UGA jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Ryan Peisel and Jonathan Wyatt led off with singles and scored on a two-run double by Rich Poythress.
VU battled back in the top of the second to tie it at 2-2. Ryan Flaherty led off with a single and scored on a RBI triple down the leftfield line by Matt Meingasner. Parker Hanks then brought him in on a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield.
The Commodores stormed through with back-to-back long balls in the third to take a 5-2 lead. David Macias led things off with a single to left and then Alex Feinberg followed with a two-run shot to left-center to put VU ahead 4-2. Georgia made a pitching change and Dominic de la Osa responded with a solo shot to left center, his 14th round-tripper, to make it 5-2.
“I knew it was going to be either a double or home run,” said Feinberg of his shot to the deepest part of the outfield.
Georgia responded with two runs in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 5-4. Peisel walked and moved to third on a double by Wyatt. Peisel scored on a throwing error by Pedro Alvarez and Wyatt scored on a RBI double by Matt Olson.
Vanderbilt came right back to get the two runs back in the fourth courtesy of two-run single by Feinberg with the bases loaded. Shea Robin started things with a single to right center and Brad French and David Macias followed with walks to set up Feinberg’s single.
The Dores then blew the game open with a four-run fifth to extend the lead to 11-4. Flaherty and Meingasner led off with back-to-back singles and moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Parker Hanks. Robin then brought the duo home with a bloop single to right to make it 9-4. French singled through the left side and after a foul out by Macias, Feinberg came up with his fifth hit and career best fifth RBI to make it 10-4. De la Osa closed things out with an infield RBI single.
VU added four more in the seventh to push the score to 15-4. Feinberg recorded his career best fifth hit and sixth RBI on a double to lead off the scoring, with de la Osa adding a RBI single and Flaherty a two-run double.
Both starters did not go long in the game with Georgia’s Jason Leaver (1-2) tagged with the loss. He gave up four runs on five hits in two innings of work.
Cody Crowell allowed four runs on five hits in 2.1 innings with a walk and a strikeout.
Dominic de la Osa finished 3-for-6 with three RBI and two runs scored and Ryan Flaherty added three hits and two RBI to lead the attack. Matt Meingasner, Shea Robin, Brad French and Pedro Alvarez all added two hits in the win.
The Commodores will have the week off before playing their final SEC road series of the year against Auburn next weekend. The Tigers were swept at Mississippi State over the weekend and are 28-22 overall and 7-17 in league play.
Vanderbilt 023 240 400 – 15 23 3
Georgia 202 000 000 – 4 5 0
Crowell, Davis (3) and Robin, Hawkins. Leaver, McRee (3), Weaver (4), Earls (5), Wooley (7), Esmonde (9) and Lewis, Crane. W- Ty Davis 2-0, L- Leaver 1-2. Sv-None. HR- VU: Feinberg (3), de la Osa (14) UGA: None.
