Nashville, Tenn. – Vanderbilt used a big hit from Jeren Kendall and eight scoreless innings from Patrick Raby to beat Tennessee 1-0 Friday night at Hawkins Field.
Jeren Kendall gave the Commodores (26-16, 10-9) the only run they needed in the fourth inning. The Dores’ center fielder blasted his 13th home run of the season, belting a 3-2 pitch into the right field seats for a 1-0 Vandy lead.
Vanderbilt starter Patrick Raby gave up a two-out double in the fifth but ended the threat with his third strikeout of the night. Raby found trouble quick in the sixth, however, when Jeff Moberg lofted a double into left field to lead off the inning. Raby then issued his only walk of the night to Justin Ammons to put the first two Volunteers (21-18, 5-14) aboard. Raby battled back to get a pop up but a slower grounder to Connor Kaiser at shortstop moved the runners into scoring position with two outs. Andre Lipcius smashed a fly ball into the right field gap where Kendall tracked it down on the warning track just shy of the wall to end the inning.
Raby retired the next six batters he saw before turning it over Reed Hayes for the ninth. The right-hander notched his team-best sixth save of the season with a 1-2-3 inning. Raby picked up his team-leading seventh win with eight scoreless innings one week after recording his first career complete game at Georgia. The sophomore fanned five and scattered five hits.
Hunter Martin took the loss in a complete game giving up one run on four hits with eight strikeouts.
Kyle Wright gets the ball for the Commodores tomorrow at 4 p.m. on SEC Network against Tennessee freshman Garrett Stallings.
