NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt broke open a 7-6 game with a nine-run seventh inning to blow past Florida 17-6 in front of 2,625 fans Saturday afternoon at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores claimed the series over the Gators for the second straight year and upped their record to 38-8 overall and 14-6 in SEC play. UF fell to 23-22 and 10-10 in conference action.
Ty Davis (1-0) pitched seven innings of solid relief to pick up his first win of the season. He gave up three runs, one earned, on four hits with seven strikeouts and a walk after coming on in the third inning. His seven strikeouts tied a career high set last season against Georgia.
“I had two outings against Kentucky and Middle Tennessee where I wasn’t happy with my outcome,” said Davis of his struggles earlier in the month. “There was some frustration there and to be able to come out Wednesday night against Tennessee Tech and get the confidence back, feel good mechanically, and come out today and do what I did was just great.”
Dominic de la Osa continued his torrid week at the plate going 4-for-5 with a double, homer and four RBI to go with three runs scored. He is 9-for-11 with four doubles, three homers, seven RBI and nine runs scored in three games this week.
Pedro Alvarez and Ryan Flaherty each had three hits while Andrew Giobbi chipped in with two of his own in the 19-hit attack.
Vanderbilt used the big inning twice in the game with a six-run first and the nine-run seventh, a new season high for runs in an inning.
Florida took a 1-0 lead in the first on an infield RBI single by Jon Townsend.
Vandy then responded with a six-run outburst in the bottom half to take a 6-1 lead. David Macias led off with a single to begin the six-hit inning. De la Osa and Alvarez had RBI singles and Flaherty added a two-run single to make it 4-0. Ryan Davis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Macias added a squeeze sac bunt with the bases loaded to account for two more runs.
The Gators chipped away at the lead with two runs in the second via an infield RBI single by Hampton Tignor and a RBI groundout by Clayton Pisani.
That ended the day for Mike Minor as he gave up three runs on six hits in two innings with a walk in the no decision.
The Gators added two unearned runs in the third to make it 6-5 and then tied the game with Austin Pride’s RBI double in the fourth.
The Commodores took back the lead for good in the sixth on Andrew Giobbi’s RBI single that scored Matt Meingasner who singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.
VU then exploded for nine runs in the seventh to put the game away. De la Osa led things off with a homer to left, his 13th of the year. Ryan Davis added a RBI single and the Commodores took advantage of two fielding errors by the Gators to extend the inning. De la Osa added a two-run double and Alvarez banged a RBI double of his own off the wall in left field to pave the way.
Vanderbilt added another run in the eighth as Jonathan White led off with a single, advanced to third on a double by Parker Hanks and scored on a wild pitch.
Florida’s Bryan Augenstein (4-5) was charged with the loss after giving up seven runs on 10 hits in 5.1 innings of work with three strikeouts and a walk.
“Well he’s a good pitcher and we got six on him,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin when talking about Augenstein. “There was two things that could happen. We could continue the momentum or he could block it off. I think Augenstein did a good job of blocking it off at that point. And then they were in a situation where they scored continuous runs and it had that feeling like we weren’t going to stop them. They were putting consistent pressure on us. It wasn’t Mikey’s day, they handled him well. I think Ty was the difference, after Pride’s double in the fourth that was it. He retired fourteen straight, until Petrie’s double in the ninth. He pitched a great game, he really did. He continued to get better and better. That was a clutch performance for him because they have some good hitters in that lineup and the way he set them down like he did was very admirable.”
The Commodores and Gators will play the final game of the three game set Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT. Junior southpaw Cody Crowell (1-1, 4.01 ERA) will take the mound for VU, while Florida will counter with freshman righthander Billy Bullock (2-4, 4.56 ERA).
Florida 122 100 000 -6 10 2
Vanderbilt 600 001 91x -17 19 1
Augenstein, Hurst (6), Edmondson (7), Franklin (8) and Tignor. Minor, T. Davis (3) and Robin. W- Ty Davis 1-0, L- Augenstein 4-5. Sv- None. HR- VU: de la Osa (13)
