NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Junior southpaw David Price carried a perfect game into the seventh inning before settling on an eight inning five hit performance with 14 strikeouts to lead Vanderbilt to a 3-1 win over Tennessee Friday night at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores improved to 33-8 overall and 10-6 in the SEC play while the Vols fell to 22-15 on the year and 6-8 in conference action.
Price carried the perfect game into the seventh inning and retired the first two batters in the frame before Tony Delmonico came through with a bloop single to right field.
The Murfreesboro native looked for his fifth complete game of the year before giving up three hits in the ninth, including a RBI single by Delmonico. Casey Weathers then came in with runners on first and second and no outs and got J.P. Arencibia to ground out to him for the first out with both runners advancing into scoring position. He then struck out Yan Gomes and got Jeff Lockwood to foul out to left to end the game.
Price improved to 7-0 on the year and finished with 14 strikeouts and no walks in eight innings of five hit ball. Weathers picked up his fourth save of the year.
“That was as good a game pitched as I have seen in a long time,” said Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin. “He just keeps overcoming himself. To command the zone as he did, he was very efficient. We got into the eighth inning and he still hadn’t gone over 100 pitches. I thought between fastball, breaking ball and changeup, he was outstanding. He gave us a great, great chance to win and Weathers was equally as good.”
The Commodores took advantage of a throwing error by catcher J.P. Arencibia and a fielding error by centerfielder Julio Borbon to score an unearned run in the bottom of the third to take a 1-0 lead. UT starter James Adkins struck out David Macias on a low pitch for what would have been the third out in the inning, but the pitch skipped in to home and Arencibia threw low to first base allowing Macias to reach. Alex Feinberg then singled to center on a hit and run as Macias moved to third and scored when Borbon misplayed the ball in center.
VU added another run in the fourth on a RBI double by Shea Robin through the drawn in infield to score Ryan Flaherty who led off the inning with a double to left.
Dominic de la Osa added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer to left for his new single season career best 10th homer of the year. He and Alex Feinberg led the Dores with two hits on the night.
Adkins was the tough luck loser for UT, pitching a complete game and allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits with nine strikeouts and two walks.
The Commodores and Vols will play the second game of the three game series tomorrow night at 6 p.m. Senior righthander Craig Cobb (6-2, 4.86 ERA) will take the hill for UT, while VU will counter with freshman southpaw Mike Minor (6-0, 1.69 ERA).
Tennessee 000 000 001 -1 5 3
Vanderbilt 001 100 010 -3 6 0
Adkins and Arencibia. Price, Weathers (9) and Robin. W- Price 7-0, L- Adkins 4-6. Sv- Weathers (4). HR- UT: None VU: de la Osa (10).
