Nashville, Tenn. – Vanderbilt rallied for four runs in the fifth inning and held on for a 5-2 victory over Missouri on Friday night at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores (28-17, 11-10) scratched out a run in the third inning to pull even with the Tigers (28-19, 8-14) but it was a big rally in the fifth inning that propelled the Dores to their second straight win and 15th straight against Missouri. The first four Commodores of the inning all reached with Connor Kaiser being hit by a pitch to open the frame. After a walk to Ro Coleman, Jeren Kendall dropped a bunt down the third base line and legged it out to load the bases in front of Julian Infante. With a 2-0 count, Infante blasted his first triple of the season off the wall in right-center field to clear the bases and give the Dores their first lead of the night 4-1. Reed Hayes capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to center to send Infante home and make it 5-1.
Given the lead for the first time, Vandy starter Patrick Raby worked around a pair of singles in the sixth to maintain the lead, stranding runners on the corners. A two-out walk with a runner on base finished the right-hander night and prompted Drake Fellows from the bullpen. The freshman was quickly greeted by an RBI-single from Kirby McGuire to cut the VU lead to three runs. After a walk, Fellows finally ended the inning and the threat with a strikeout. Fellow freshman Zach King worked himself into trouble in the eighth before Reed Hayes wrapped up the inning with a strikeout. Hayes closed down the win in the ninth to earn his seventh save of the season.
Raby earned his team-leading eighth win of the season with 6.2 innings of work. The right-hander gave up two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts. Jason Delay led the offense with a pair of doubles with Infante driving in three runs to push his total to nine over his last five games.
Missouri starter Cole Bartlett took the loss after giving up five runs, four earned, on five hits with three walks. Robbie Glendinning hit a solo home run and Chris Cornelius added two singles for the Tigers in the loss.
The Commodores and Tigers will meet tomorrow at 2 p.m. on SEC Network+. Kyle Wright gets the ball for the home team against Missouri’s Tanner Houck.
