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| Freshman Mike Minor picked up his first collegiate win Tuesday after blanking Austin Peay in eight innings of work. |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Freshman southpaw Mike Minor threw eight innings of shutout baseball to lead No. 1 Vanderbilt to an 8-0 win over Austin Peay Tuesday afternoon at Hawkins Field.
Minor (1-0) picked up his first collegiate victory after limiting the Governors to just three hits with eight strikeouts and a walk. Cody Crowell completed the Commodores first shutout of the year with a scoreless ninth.
“For a young kid, that’s as good a game as I’ve seen pitched,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said when discussing Minor’s performance. “He’s got a good mix for a young man, and he repeats his delivery. I don’t want to put any tags on him, because it’s not fair to him, but he’s similar in his approach to pitching as Sowers (Jeremy), probably. Whether he ever turns out to be that, we’ll see.”
Third baseman Pedro Alvarez led the offensive attack going 4-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored. He flirted with hitting for the cycle after opening with a single, double and triple in his first three at-bats. He flied out to right in his fourth at-bat and laced an opposite field double in his final at-bat in the ninth.
Vanderbilt moves to 11-0 on the year, while Austin Peay fell to 2-2.
The Commodores opened the scoring with two runs in the first courtesy of an RBI single by Pedro Alvarez and a RBI double by Dominic de la Osa. VU added two more in the third via a RBI single by Andrew Giobbi and a fielders choice grounder by Ryan Davis.
Vanderbilt tallied single runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth to close out the scoring.
Brad French had a RBI double in the sixth and Alvarez added a RBI double in the eighth to key the attack.
Brian Harris and Ryan Davis each had two hits to help lead the 14-hit VU attack.
The Commodores close out their 11 game home stand this weekend with a three game series against Xavier. Friday’s game is at 4 p.m., with a 2 p.m. start on Saturday and a 1 p.m. start on Sunday.
Austin Peay 000 000 000 – 0 3 3
Vanderbilt 202 011 11x – 8 14 0
Kelley, Reynolds (3), Mantooth (5), Bradley (7), Wilshire (8) and Lucas. Minor, Crowell (9) and Giobbi, Hawkins. W- Minor 1-0. L- Kelley 1-1. Sv- None. HRs: None.
