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Vanderbilt Defeats Baylor, 1-0 3/13/2004
Vanderbilt Defeats Baylor, 1-0 WACO, Texas — Sophomore right-hander Jensen Lewis pitched seven shutout innings in helping lead Vanderbilt to a 1-0 victory over Baylor today at the Baylor Ballpark. Lewis improves to 3-0 on the season. Junior closer Ryan Rote earned his third save of the season. “It was just a very well played college baseball game,” Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin said. “There were two good pitchers out there. They’re left-handed pitcher was as good as you’ll see. Both teams played great defense — there was very little room for error.” The Commodores struck early scoring in the first inning. Sophomore second baseman Warner Jones singled with two away and advanced to second when senior first baseman Cesar Nicolas drew a walk. Sophomore DH Mike Baxter then singled up the middle on the first pitch scoring Jones for the only score of the game. The Commodores are now 11-0 when scoring first in a game. Lewis faced 25 batters and gave up three hits in seven innings walking one. “I have to give a lot of credit to Coach (Derek) Johnson who called a superb game. I didn’t throw a lot of strikes, but I threw them when I needed to,” Lewis said. The Bears threatened to score in the seventh inning when Josh Ford doubled down the left field line to lead off the inning. Zach Dillon then hit a sacrifice bunt advancing Ford to third. Mike Pankratz then flied out to junior centerfielder Antoan Richardson and Ford was held on third. Mike Heldoorn then struck out to retire the side stranding Ford on third. “We were trying to change it up and give them a different look, so they couldn’t get comfortable in the box,” Lewis said. “I just wanted to make good pitches. Sophomore Matt Buschmann came in the eighth inning and faced four batters. With two away, Drew Sutton walked and Michael Griffin singled to second base. Rote then came in and struck out Kyle Reynolds to retire the side leaving two Baylor players on base. Rote retired the side in the ninth inning to preserve the Commodore win. “They are definitely a fast ball hitting team,” Rote said. “I knew that I had to get ahead of the count.” Vanderbilt totaled six hits in the game led by junior third baseman Tony Mansolino who went 3-4 at the plate. Vanderbilt and Baylor wrap up the three-game series tomorrow at 1 pm. The series is tied at one. |
