April 26, 2015
Nashville, Tenn. – No. 13 Vanderbilt finished off the team’s fourth series sweep of the season with a 5-2 win over No. 14 Missouri on Sunday afternoon at a chilly Hawkins Field.
The Commodores (33-12, 15-6) and Tigers (26-18, 12-9) played to a 2-2 stalemate headed into the bottom of the eighth inning when the Dores offense came through with clutch hitting. Tyler Campbell led off the inning with a single through the left side of the Missouri infield. Ro Coleman’s sacrifice bunt down the first base line was fielded by pitcher Austin Tribby, who’s flip to first was wide allowing Coleman to reach and Campbell to move to third. Rhett Wiseman then worked a walk to load the bases with no outs for Dansby Swanson. The junior delivered the game-winner with a high single off the left field wall to score Campbell and Coleman for a 4-2 Vandy lead. Will Toffey followed one batter later with a crisp single to right field to add an insurance run for reliever Ben Bowden.
Out for his second inning of work, Bowden wasted no time working a 1-2-3 ninth inning with two strikeouts to seal his fifth victory of the season. The win puts Vanderbilt two games ahead of Florida in the SEC East division and a half game clear of LSU overall in the league.
Wiel put the Dores on the board first with his third home run in as many days, launching a solo homer into the left field seats in the fifth inning. The round tripper matches Wiseman for the team lead with nine. A Mizzou home run tied the game in the sixth and a two-out single in the seventh gave the Tigers their first lead of the weekend. But once again, Wiel was in the mix offensively to tie the game for the Dores. The junior led off the inning with a single and came around to score on Jeren Kendall’s sacrifice fly to right field. Wiel finished the day 2-for-4 with two runs scored to lead VU. For the week the Murfreesboro, Tenn. native hit .467 (7-for-15) with three home runs and drove in eight runs to pace a Vandy offense that scored 30 runs during a perfect 4-0 week.
Walker Buehler tossed seven strong innings in a no decision for the Commodores, allowing two runs on seven hits over seven innings with nine strikeouts. Vanderbilt pitching struck out 41 Tigers over the three-game series with starters Carson Fulmer, Philip Pfeifer and Buehler combining to strike out 33 over 21 innings. The Vandy pitching staff leads the SEC with 452 strikeouts.
Tribby took the loss for Missouri allowing two runs, one earned, on one hit while recording just two outs in relief. Tigers’ starter Peter Fairbanks was solid over 6.1 innings allowing two runs on five hits. Josh Lester led the MU offense with a solo home run and a single.
The Commodores return to action on Tuesday at Rose Park to take on Belmont at 5 p.m.
