AUBURN, Ala. — Vanderbilt reached the double digit run total for the fifth time in the last seven Southeastern Conference games to defeat Auburn 10-5 Friday night at Plainsman Park.
The Commodores improved to 42-9 overall and clinched a spot in the SEC tourney with an 18-7 league mark.
The Tigers dropped their fourth straight decision to VU and fell to 28-23 and 7-18 in league play.
David Price moved to 9-0 on the year after giving up five runs, four earned, on seven hits in eight innings of work. He struck out six and walked two to move to 5-0 in SEC action. He now has 149 strikeouts on the season and is six short of tying his single season school record of 155 set last year.
“It wasn’t my best outing tonight,” said Price. “I didn’t have good command of my fastball or my slider. I threw some good changeups but other than that I don’t think I threw very well.”
Mike Bianucci’s two-out RBI single in the first gave the Tigers an early 1-0 lead. The Commodores rallied back for two runs in the second to take a 2-1 lead. Matt Meingasner led off with a single and Parker Hanks reached on an error before Shea Robin sacrificed both runners over. Auburn starter Evan Crawford struck out Brad French for the second out setting up David Macias who hit a bloop single to shallow right that second baseman Robert Brooks could not come up with allowing both runners to score.
The Dores added two more runs in the third on RBI singles by Matt Meingasner and Shea Robin to push the lead to 4-1. Dominic de la Osa led off with a double down the left field line Pedro Alvarez followed with a walk. After a line out by Ryan Flaherty, Meingasner singled to left-center on a hit and run bringing in de la Osa and allowing Alvarez to move to third. Robin came up with an infield single to score Alvarez.
VU blew the game open with a three-run fourth to take a 7-1 lead. Macias led off with a walk and scored on a RBI triple by Alex Feinberg. De la Osa followed with a RBI double and scored himself on a double by Ryan Flaherty to end Crawford’s night.
Crawford (4-6) gave up seven runs, five earned on 10 hits in 3.1 innings with two walks and four strikeouts in the losing effort.
Alex Feinberg’s two-run homer, his fourth of the year and second in as many games, made it 9-1 in the fifth. Macias singled with two outs for his third hit of the night and scored on Feinberg’s blast over the wall in right-center.
Auburn tallied three runs in the sixth to make it 9-4. Josh Donaldson had a two-run single and Mike Bianucci added a RBI double to account for the runs. The Tigers added another run on a RBI groundout in the seventh to close out their scoring.
Flaherty tripled in the ninth and scored on sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Ryan Davis to finish off the game scoring.
Brett Jacobson had an exciting ninth on the mound after giving up a couple of hits and loading the bases but got Josh Donaldson to fly out to left to end the game.
Macias had three hits and two RBI and Feinberg added two hits and three RBI to lead the way. Flaherty, Meingasner and de la Osa all chipped in with two hits each in the 13 hit attack.
The Commodores and Tigers will play the second game of the series Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. CT. Freshman southpaw Mike Minor (7-1, 3.05 ERA) will take the hill for VU, while Auburn will counter with freshman righthander Taylor Thompson (4-2, 5.57 ERA).
Vanderbilt 022 320 001 – 10 13 1
Auburn 100 003 100 – 5 9 1
Price, Jacobson (9) and Robin. Crawford, J. Thompson (4) and Donaldson. W- Price 9-0, L- Crawford 4-6. Sv-None. HR- VU: Feinberg (4). AUB: None.
