ARLINGTON, Texas — Vanderbilt piled up a touchdown’s worth of runs in the second inning Saturday, showing what its offense is capable of with an 11-9 victory over Oklahoma State at Globe Life Field.
Coming off a day when they were held to five hits, the Commodores (1-1) busted out with a seven-run frame, highlighted by a three-run triple from sophomore designated hitter Matthew Polk.
“We showed we can play fast and that we’re athletic and that we don’t necessarily need the home run to win ballgames and score a lot of runs,” Polk said of Saturday’s offensive outburst. “We use our speed and the tools we have.”
Vandy racked up 11 hits and went 8-for-18 with runners on base and 7-for-15 with runners in scoring position. All but one Commodore had at least one hit, and five had at least one RBI.
Vanderbilt also drew three walks and struck out just four times as a team.
“We were just touching first base,” Polk said. “We got dudes grinding and getting on first base, and I was just the dude who got the lucky opportunity to put the ball in play (for the big hit).”
Hunter Owen (1-0) got the starting nod for Vandy and did his job. The sophomore went four innings and allowed just two earned runs on four hits and three walks.
He struck out six, and 52 of his 77 pitches were strikes.
“It was all right,” Owen said of his start. “Just getting back out there and competing felt good, getting back out there with the team. Definitely could have cut down on the walks, but other than that it felt decent. I tried to do my best to give us a chance to win.”
Vanderbilt will now look to leave the Lone Star State with a winning record; they face Texas at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.
On Saturday, Owen got two easy, quick outs in the first—and then came trouble.
A walk and a hit batter brought David Mendham to the plate, and the OSU first baseman ripped an RBI single into center field to give the Cowboys an early 1-0 lead.
But Vandy came right back in its half inning, getting a two-run double to left off the bat of Calvin Hewett that put the Dores up 2-1.
Vanderbilt loaded the bases in the second with a walk and back-to-back singles. That brought up Polk, who took a 3-2 pitch and planted it in the right-center gap for a bases-clearing, three-run triple to make it 5-1.
“Just trying to get a job done,” Polk said. “Bases loaded, wasn’t trying to do too much, 3-2—good hitters get jammed with two strikes, and I was just going to let it get deep and put a good swing on it for the boys. I got a good result.”
Parker Noland added two more with a two-run single to right later in the inning, and RJ Austin brought in another with a run-scoring single to right to make it 8-1. Jack Bulgerplated one more with an RBI groundout.
The Commodores scored seven runs in the frame on six hits, two walks and a hit batter.
Beau Sylvester got one of those runs back in the fourth for Oklahoma State thanks to a solo homer to the right-field corner. That was countered by another Austin RBI single in the bottom half, making it 10-2.
Austin would score later in the inning on a wild pitch to give the Commodores an 11-2 lead.
Then things got a bit dicey for the Dores in the later innings.
Oklahoma State (1-1) scored on a wild pitch in the sixth, making the score 11-3. Chase Adkison’s RBI double to left in the eighth made it 11-4, and then Roc Riggio’s pop up to right that landed safely on the turf scored another.
Nolan McLean’s three-run home run deep to right got the Cowboys within 11-8, and then a Vanderbilt error gifted OSU yet another run—making it 11-9.
But Thomas Schultz struck out the final two batters of the inning, and Nick Maldonado(S, 1) worked a 1-2-3 ninth to preserve the victory.
Brennan Phillips (0-1) took the loss for the Cowboys. He was charged with seven earned runs on four hits, two walks and two hit batters.
— Chad Bishop covers Vanderbilt for VUCommodores.com.
Follow him @MrChadBishop.
