STARKVILLE, Miss. — Vanderbilt baseball hit three more home runs in Sunday’s series finale at Mississippi State as the Commodores swept the Bulldogs with an 11-7 win at Dudy Noble Field.
Davis Diaz went 2-for-3 with two home runs, three RBIs and a pair of walks. Jack Bulger also drove in three runs with his third homer on the season.
Mississippi State jumped on top early with one run on two hits and a hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the first.
Chris Maldonado evened the game at 1-1 with his team-leading ninth double in the top of the second, to score Jack Bulger from second. After Maldonado moved up to third on a groundout, Matthew Polk drove him in with a two-out single, giving Vanderbilt a 2-1 lead.
The Dores extended their lead in the third. Enrique Bradfield Jr. worked a leadoff walk and Davis Diaz followed with a two-run homer, his second long ball in as many games, to put Vandy on top 4-1.
Bulger reached on an error as the inning continued and Maldonado singled to bring Parker Noland to the plate. Noland scored Bulger with a line drive to right field, his 14th RBI of the series.
Diaz went deep again with two outs in the top of the fourth. His second home run of the game stretched Vanderbilt’s lead to 6-1.
The Bulldogs cut into the Vandy lead with a pair of solo home runs in the bottom of the fourth from Kellum Clark and Luke Hancock.
Vandy and Mississippi State combined for nine runs in the sixth inning as the slugfest continued.
Jonathan Vastine chased the Mississippi State starting pitcher from the game with a one-out RBI double down the first base line in the top of the sixth, scoring Polk all the way from first. Vastine moved to third on a sac bunt and scored on a wild pitch to put Vandy back up by five.
Bulger opened things up two batters later with a three-run blast to left field to make it 11-3. Bulger has an RBI in each of the last five games.
Mississippi State answered Vanderbilt’s five-run frame with four in the home half of the inning. The Bulldogs took advantage of a pair of walks and scored one on a double to left-center before plating three on a home run by Connor Hujsak.
Neither team scored in the final three innings with the game ending 11-7.
Devin Futrell got the start on the mound and went 4.2 innings, allowing three runs. Sam Hliboki (W, 3-2) tossed 2.2 scoreless innings and Nick Maldonado threw a perfect ninth to end it.
Vanderbilt is 6-0 in conference play for the first time since 1972. The Commodores scored 55 runs on the weekend with 46 hits including 12 home runs and seven doubles. The 55 runs are most in a conference series in program history.
The Dores have now won seven consecutive games in Starkville dating back to 2014.
Vanderbilt returns to Nashville to host Lipscomb at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hawkins Field with action airing on SEC Network+.
