June 4, 2010
Vanderbilt 8, Illinois State 7 (13 innings)
NCAA Regionals
Jim Patterson Stadium – Louisville, Ky.
Team Notes
* Vanderbilt’s bullpen was spectacular on Friday, allowing just one run in 9.2 innings of relief. The Commodore bullpen struck out 12 while allowing only 6 hits in 9.2 innings.
* Vanderbilt now leads the all-time series with Illinois State 6-4. The Commodores have won three straight over ISU.
* Vanderbilt made its ninth NCAA tournament appearance in school’s history.
* Vanderbilt improved to 16-15 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
* Vanderbilt’s win Friday snapped a two-game NCAA Regional opening game losing streak. In 2009 and 2008 Vanderbilt dropped their first game and fell to the loser bracket.
* Vanderbilt made its fifth straight NCAA tournament appearance and its second straight trip to the Louisville Regional.
Individual Notes
* Coming into the game, Vanderbilt’s Jack Armstrong was 1-for-2 at the plate for the entire year. His game winning pinch-hit RBI was the second RBI of the year and just his third RBI of his career. Armstrong now has four hits in seven career at-bats.
* Aaron Westlake connected on his team-leading 13th home run of the year, a two-run shot in the sixth inning. Westlake has now homered in 6 of his 10 games. The home run for Westlake was his 23rd of his career.
* Westlake walked three times on Friday marking a new career high for the California native.
* Joe Loftus homered for the first time since homering against LSU on May 7th. The home run was Loftus’ seventh of the season and 11th of his career.
* Grayson Garvin struck out a career-high six batters in 4.1 innings of relief. The sophomore lefthander allowed one run on four hits with 6 strikeouts and
* Jason Esposito recorded his team-high 23rd double of the season and stole his team-leading 29th bag of the year.
* Senior catcher Andrew Giobbi threw out his 23rd runner of the season on Friday. Giobbi has thrown out 23 of 54 runners attempting to steal.
* Taylor Hill’s 3.1-inning start Friday was his shortest outing of the season (out of his 16 starts).
* Vanderbilt’s Aaron Westlake and Joe Loftus hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning, marking the first time VU had hit back-to-back homers since Curt Casali and Andrew Giobbi accomplished that feat against Illinois State on March 6.
* Chase Reid struck out five and walked one in three innings of no-hit scoreless relief.
* Richie Goodenow struck out the only batter he faced in the 11th inning.
* Drew Hayes replaced Goodenow on the mound and threw two innings of scoreless relief. Hayes struck out three and walked non while allowing one hit.