NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No. 11 Vanderbilt dropped the team’s second straight series with an 8-2 loss to Texas A&M on Sunday at Hawkins Field.
For the second straight day the Aggies jumped on Vanderbilt’s (27-10, 7-8) starting pitching for two runs in the first inning. Commodores’ starter Tyler Ferguson allowed a leadoff single to Blake Allemand, who took second on an error by John Norwood and moved to third on a passed ball before there was an out recorded. Ferguson bounced back to get a strikeout before allowing a sacrifice fly to center field for the first run of the game. Jonathan Moroney blasted a solo home run off the scoreboard in left field though before Ferguson could get out of the inning.
The Dores appeared to be ready to take the runs back in the bottom of the first with singles from Dansby Swanson and Xavier Turner but Vandy ran themselves out of the inning when the pair were each caught stealing.
The Aggies (22-15, 7-8) continued to hit in the second with Krey Bratsen doubling in a run to push the Vanderbilt deficit to three runs. Back-to-back singles to lead off the Aggie fourth led to two more runs. Ferguson, however, settled down to retire seven straight Aggies before a leadoff walk in the seventh ended his day and snapped the streak. Texas A&M scratched out two more runs off Carson Fulmer in the eighth and made the right-hander pay for a leadoff walk of his own in the ninth to put the game away.
The Vanderbilt offense struggled to put runs on the board despite outhitting Texas A&M 11-8. Swanson’s sacrifice fly in the third put a run on the board for the home team but the inning came to an end when Turner bounced out to second and Vince Conde was caught looking. Three VU hits led to a run in the fourth but a double play squashed the rally with Rhett Wiseman’s double scoring the lone run. The Commodores’ final rally attempt of the day came in the seventh when Jason Delay and Swanson singled with two outs. Turner appeared to have a RBI-single headed through the right side of the Texas A&M infield but the ball hit Swanson between first and second for the final out of the inning.
Ferguson was pegged with his second loss of the season allowing six runs, five earned, on seven hits with five strikeouts over six-plus innings. Aggies’ starter Grayson Long picked up the win with 7.2 innings of work giving up two runs on 11 hits with four strikeouts.
Turner pushed his hitting streak to 22 games with two hits on the afternoon. Swanson and Delay each added two hits as the Commodores collected 10 singles on the afternoon. Bratsen led Texas A&M from the ninth spot in the order with three hits.
The series loss for the Dores is the first conference series loss at Hawkins Field since VU dropped two-of-three to South Carolina in early 2012 and ends a streak of 10 consecutive SEC series wins at The Hawk.
Vanderbilt returns to action on Tuesday night at Hawkins Field when Middle Tennessee State pays its annual visit to Hawkins Field. Game time is slated for 6:30 p.m.
