Oct. 20, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt Gold team scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning and that’s all it needed Tuesday night as Taylor Hill threw five innings of shutout baseball as the Gold team defeated the Black team 2-0 at Hawkins Field. With the win, the Gold team clinched the five-game fall series, 3-2 over the Black squad.
“I thought the two teams were evenly matched going into the series and it played out that way,” Taylor Hill said. “Both teams got strong pitching performances and both teams hit the ball well at times. It’s just one of things where we were lucky to win the series because it could of gone either way.”
The Gold team got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first when junior college transfer Bryan Johns scored on Andrew Giobbi’s double to the left-center wall. Johns led off the inning with a single to centerfield off Black starting pitcher, Richie Goodenow.
Two at-bats later, the Gold team pushed its lead to 2-0 when Giobbi came home on an infield bunt by freshman Anthony Gomez. The Gold team took advantage of a one-out throwing error in the middle of the inning, allowing the runners to move up a base.
Goodenow than put Connor Harrell down on strikes before getting Andrew Harris to fly out to left field to end the bottom of the first inning.
Hill was dominant on the mound in his second outing of the five-game series as he scattered five hits over five scoreless innings. The Old Hickory, Tenn., native struck out seven and finished with no walks on the night. Hill allowed only one earned run in 10-innings of work during the series.
“I just went out there and threw strikes tonight,” Hill said. “I thought I did a better job of keeping the ball down in the zone and the defense behind me played great.”
Jason Esposito and Brian Harris led the Black team at the plate with two hits apiece while Drew Fann added a single.
Giobbi and Connor Harrell were the only players that recorded an extra-base hit in the game as the pitchers from both teams kept the hitters off balance. Harrell led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple to right center but the Gold team failed to drive him in as Corey Williams retired the next three batters to end the threat.
Navery Moore threw two-innings of scoreless relief to earn the save for the Gold team.
Goodenow allowed two runs and four hits while walking one and striking out a pair. Williams threw two innings of middle relief for the Black team and allowed one hit and one walk to go along with his two strikeouts. Grayson Garvin struck out two and allowed no hits in his lone inning of the series.
