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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Brian Harris’ three-run homer in the sixth inning broke a 1-1 tie and catapulted Vanderbilt to an 8-1 win over Lipscomb Tuesday night at Ken Dugan Field.
Curt Casali and Parker Hanks had back-to-back singles with one out in the sixth and after a fly-out, Harris blasted a 1-2 pitch by reliever Taylor Merry over the wall in left field. It was his first career home run in his 136th at-bat.
“It was a fastball up and in,” said Harris. “I just tried to put the barrel on it and put the ball in play. I am just glad the homer happened and I was able to hit one before I got out of here.”
The Commodores won its season best sixth straight to improve to 25-10 on the year, while the Bison fell to 20-16.
VU added two more runs in the seventh when Dominic de la Osa roped a RBI triple to left-center and scored on a wild pitch by Kyle Tognazini.
The Commodores closed out the scoring in the ninth, scoring a couple of runs on RBI singles by Pedro Alvarez and Casali.
“I thought there were two big hits in the game that actually separated it and that was Brian’s two-strike, two-out home-run and Dominic’s triple. At the time it was very important because the game was close and it was a two-strike, two-out RBI hit as well.”
Vanderbilt starter Taylor Hill (4-2) gave up one run on four hits in five innings with two walks and two strikeouts in the winning effort.
Richie Goodenow came on and struck out two in an inning and Drew Hayes followed with 1.2 innings of one-hit scoreless relief. Sean Bierman struck out a batter with the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth and Brett Jacobson struck out two in a scoreless ninth to end the game.
“The guys we sent out there today were all first-timers except for Jacobson,” said Corbin about the pitching staff’s performance. “You put them in tight situations and I like what I see. The more we run them out there in those situations, the better they will be. So far, so good. It hasn’t been ugly and that is all that really matters.”
The Commodores struck first in the fourth, scoring on a RBI single by Curt Casali. Flaherty doubled to lead off the inning and moved to third on a balk by Lipscomb starter Paul Piennette (1-2).
The Bisons struck back in the bottom half, tying the game on Shane Simpkins RBI double off of Hill.
Curt Casali had three hits and two RBI, with David Macias adding three hits and a run scored. Ryan Flaherty and Parker Hanks had two hits as well in helping lead the Commodore 13 hit attack.
“I thought Curt did a nice job behind the plate,” added Corbin. “He catches like an older person, when he is back there, there is not a lot of hiccups in what he does. He had a couple of RBI hits as well, a pretty good day of work.”
Vanderbilt will be back in action tomorrow night at Western Kentucky at 6 p.m. The Dores will then return home for a three-game series against Auburn starting on Friday at 6 p.m. The teams will play on Saturday at noon in a game televised regionally by CSS. Sunday’s game is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch.
Vanderbilt 000 103 202 – 8 13 1
Lipscomb 000 100 000 – 1 5 0
Hill, Goodenow (6), Hayes (7), Bierman (8), Jacobson (9) and Casali. Piennette, Merry (6), Burnett (6), Tognazzini (8) and Joseph. W-Hill 4-2, L- 1-2. Sv- None. HR: VU: Harris (1) LIP: None .
