ATHENS, Ga.— Nathan Moreau pitched seven innings of four-hit shutout baseball to lead Georgia to a 7-0 win over Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon at Foley Field.
The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for Vanderbilt as the team fell to 40-9 overall and 16-7 in Southeastern Conference action.
The Bulldogs improved to 19-29 and 8-15 in league play.
Moreau (4-2) kept the Commodore offensive attack off balance during his stint, finishing with eight strikeouts and one walk in seven innings of work. Trevor Holder pitched the final two innings, allowing just one hit in the ninth to keep the shutout intact.
It was the first time Vanderbilt has been shutout since the first game of the 2006 season against San Diego, and it was the first time in conference play since LSU blanked VU 3-0 on May 1, 2005.
Ryan Flaherty led the Dores with two of the five hits on the day and extended his team best hitting streak to 17 games.
“It was one of those days where we couldn’t get anything going for us,” said Flaherty. “We came out of the gate slow and just couldn’t gain any momentum throughout the game. We just have to put it behind us and come out tomorrow prepared to win.”
Georgia jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first courtesy of a two-run double by Rich Poythress and a RBI groundout by Matt Olson off of VU starter Mike Minor. Ryan Peisel led off with a walk and moved to second on a single by Jonathan Wyatt. A fly ball moved Peisel to third before Poythress’ double knocked in two runs. There was a little controversy on Wyatt’s run as the umpires originally ruled he was thrown out at the plate. They got together and overturned the call, ruling he slid in safely before the tag by catcher Shea Robin. Poythress had moved to third on the throw home and scored on Olson’s slow grounder to short.
Wyatt added as solo homer to lead off the third to make it 4-0.
Mike Freeman came through with a RBI single and Ryan Peisel added a sacrifice fly RBI in the fourth to extend the lead to 6-0.
Peisel added a RBI single in the sixth to make it 7-0.
Minor (7-1) was charged with his first loss of the season after giving up seven runs, six earned in six innings of work. He gave up eight hits while striking out six and walking two.
Brett Jacobson pitched two innings of one-hit relief to close out the game for Vanderbilt.
The Commodores and Bulldogs will play the rubber game of the three game set Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT. Junior lefthander Cody Crowell (2-1. 4.02 ERA) will take the hill for VU, while UGA will send sophomore southpaw Jason Leaver (1-1, 4.83 ERA) to the mound.
Vanderbilt 000 000 000 – 0 5 2
Georgia 301 201 00x – 7 9 0
Minor, Jacobson (7) and Robin. Moreau, Holder (8) and Lewis. W- Moreau 4-2, L- Minor 7-1. Sv-None. HR- VU: None. UGA: Wyatt (5)
