HONOLULU, Hawaii — Vanderbilt baseball used early offense combined with standout pitching to cruise to a 9-2 series-opening victory over Hawaii on Friday at Les Murakami Stadium.
The Commodores received an impressive performance from their starter, junior Chris McElvain (2-0), who earned his second win of the season. McElvain worked a career-long seven innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits and one walk, while picking up a personal-best 13 strikeouts.
Sophomore Grayson Moore covered the final two frames out of the bullpen. The right-hander allowed just one hit, while striking out two batters to close out the game.
Offensively, Vanderbilt tallied a season-high tying 12 hits. Four Commodores contributed multi-hit outings with eight of nine starters reaching base safely. The offensive output was led by three-hit efforts from both Davis Diaz and Javier Vaz, while Tate Kolwyck registered a team-high three RBIs.
Vanderbilt got on the board with one run in the first. The inning began with back-to-back singles from Enrique Bradfield Jr. and Diaz, resulting in runners on the corners with no outs. One batter later, Spencer Jones reached on a RBI fielder’s choice to score Bradfield and put the Commodores in the scoring column.
Vandy added another run in the second, thanks to a solo home run from Carter Young. The long ball marked his first of the season, giving the Commodores a 2-0 lead.
The Vanderbilt offense erupted for a five-run inning in the third to seize momentum. Diaz began the frame with a lead-off double before Jones reached on a walk to place runners on first and second. After a sacrifice bunt advanced both runners into scoring position, Young collected his second RBI of the night with a groundout chopper to third.
After the inning continued with Dominic Keegan reaching on an intentional walk, Vaz brought home the second run of the inning on a RBI single down the left field line.
One batter later, Kolwyck capped the inning’s scoring with a three-run home run to deep center – his second homer of the season – to give Vandy a 7-0 advantage.
Hawaii got on the board with two runs in the home half of the third to trim the Vanderbilt lead to 7-2.
The Commodores tacked on one run in the fifth, as Keegan connected on a solo shot to left center, making it a 8-2 contest.
Vanderbilt added one more in the eighth, with Bradfield collecting a RBI single to set the score at 9-2, the eventual final.
The two teams will return to the diamond Saturday for a doubleheader to continue the weekend series. Game 1 of the twinbill will be a seven-inning contest beginning at 5:05 p.m. CT, while Game 2 will go the full nine innings.
