April 9, 2016
Baton Rouge, La. – No. 2 Vanderbilt could not find enough offense in a 3-2 loss at No. 15 LSU to drop the series at Alex Box Stadium.
The Commodores (24-7, 6-5) started off with a bang thanks to a leadoff home run from Ro Coleman. But the Tigers (21-9, 6-5) rallied with two down in the second inning to take the lead. A two-out single to right field by Chris Reid was misplayed by Jeren Kendall to allow Reid to go to second. Kyle Wright issued his first walk of the night to put two on before giving up a RBI-single to Cole Freeman to tie the game. Antoine Duplantis delivered the go-ahead runs with an opposite field single to left to score two runs before Wright could get out of the inning.
Vanderbilt struggled to find offense after Coleman’s leadoff homer against LSU starter Alex Lange. Beginning with the last out of the first inning, Lange retired 12 in a row before a Tyler Campbell single snapped the streak with two down in the fifth. Bryan Reynolds’ solo homer in the sixth brought the Commodores within a run but the Vandy offense scuffled from there striking out nine more times to end the game. A Reynolds’ two-out double was wasted in the eighth and Walker Grisanti’s pinch hit, infield single in the ninth left the freshman at second base to end the game.
Wright was solid over seven innings in his second straight tough-luck loss. The right-hander battled out of jams over his last three innings working around an error and a walk in the fifth. In the sixth, a leadoff walk was pushed to second base with a sacrifice bunt. Ethan Paul’s second error of the night at second base put Tigers on the corners with one out. Jason Delay took care of the second out by picking off Reid at third. The Commodores caught a break for the third out when Wright’s errant pick off throw to first hit the umpire and allowed Kyle Smith to pick up the ball and tag out Freeman for the third out. Wright worked out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh after hitting two batters to load the bases, the sophomore bounced back to strike out Brody Wofford to end the inning. Wright allowed three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts across seven innings.
Reynolds led the way for the Dores with two hits in the loss.
Lange picked up the win allowing two runs on three hits with nine strikeouts over 6.1 innings. Freeman posted three hits to lead the Tigers.
The series loss is just the second for Vanderbilt this season.
The Commodores and Tigers wrap up the series tomorrow at 2 p.m. with Hayden Stone on the bump against LSU’s lefty John Valek.
