|
#24 Baseball Defeats Middle Tennessee, 6-3 4/20/2004
#24 Baseball Defeats Middle Tennessee, 6-3 MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The 24th-ranked Vanderbilt baseball team pounded out 11 hits including three home runs en route to a 6-3 come-from-behind victory over Middle Tennessee at Reese Smith Field Tuesday night. Vanderbilt improves to 27-10, which ties last year’s win total. MTSU moves to 23-15. With the score tied 3-3 after six innings, Warner Jones hit a two-run home run to give Vanderbilt a 5-3 lead. For Jones, it was his sixth of the season. Cesar Nicolas, Tony Mansolino and Aaron Garza each had two hits for the Commodores. Nicolas finished two runs and an RBI. After a scoreless opening three innings, Nicolas led off the fourth inning with a mammoth blast over the left field wall to give Vanderbilt a 1-0 lead. Masnolino followed with a bloop single to right field and eventually scored a Ryan Klosterman bases-loaded single. MTSU took its only lead of the game in the fifth inning when Eric McNamee hit an opposite-field 3-run home run over the right field wall for a 3-2 Blue Raider advantage. One inning later, Worth Scott hit his fourth home run of the season as he tied the game at 3-3. The Commodores added an insurance run in the ninth as Nicolas doubled and scored from third on an infield single by Mansolino. Ryan Rote came on in the bottom of the ninth and retired the side in order for his ninth save of the season, which ties the Vanderbilt single-season record set in 1996 by Clinton Johnston. Freshman southpaw Stephen Shao (3-0) got the win as he pitched two innings of scoreless ball in relief. He struck out two while allowing two singles. Shay Horseman (0-3) was credited with the loss after he allowed both Commodore runs in the seventh inning. The Commodores return to action on Wednesday when they face Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Ky. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Nashville but was moved in early March. |
