LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky starter Alex Meyer tossed a complete game, shutout to beat Vanderbilt Friday night 2-0 at Cliff Hagan Stadium in the series opener.
The big right-hander dominated the Commodores to earn his fifth win of the year scattering five hits and fanning five. The Dores did not have a base runner reach second base until the seventh inning and had two runners aboard in the ninth with no outs before Meyer coaxed a pair of pop outs and a strikeout to finish off the shutout.
Kentucky jumped out to an early lead on Thomas McCarthy’s solo homer in the second inning and added an insurance run in the seventh scoring with Braden Kapetyn scoring from third base on a wild pitch. The Wildcats won despite having only four hits. Tony Kemp led VU with three of the teams five hits. Jason Esposito extended his hitting streak to 25 games with a second-inning single.
The loss overshadowed a great performance from Vanderbilt starter Sonny Gray. The junior turned in his third complete game of the year on 84 pitches to take the loss. Gray allowed two runs on four hits, striking out nine with no walks in his eight innings.
The shutout loss is the first of the year for Vanderbilt and the first since last April against South Carolina and also marks the first time the Dores have been shutout on the road since 2009 at Middle Tennessee State. Game time was the shortest of the season coming in at 1 hour, 53 minutes.
The Commodores try to even the series tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. CT. Grayson Garvin gets the nod for the Dores against Kentucky’s freshman southpaw Corey Litrell.
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