NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Freshman southpaw Mike Minor pitched 7.2 innings of five-hit baseball to lead Vanderbilt to a 6-2 win over LSU in front of 2,453 fans Friday night at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores (45-10, 21-8 SEC) took their eighth straight SEC series and ended up capturing nine of the 10 conference series they played in this season. The 45 wins ties the school record set in 2004 when VU made it to the Super Regionals.
The Tigers fell to 29-25-1 and 12-16-1 in conference action. They are still alive for the SEC tourney but would need to win tomorrow and have both Tennessee and Kentucky lose to advance to Birmingham.
Minor (8-1) picked up his first win since defeating Tennessee on April 21. He gave up two runs on five hits in 7.2 innings with six strikeouts and two walks.
Ty Davis came on in the eighth and closed out the game with 1.1 innings of perfect relief with three strikeouts to earn his first save of the year and second of his career.
The Commodores took a 1-0 lead in the second when Ryan Flaherty singled off of LSU starter Ryan Byrd to lead off the inning and then scored on a RBI triple by Matt Meingasner.
The Tigers tied it up in the fourth on a RBI triple by J.T. Wise that scored Sean Ochinko who led off the inning with a walk.
Dominic de la Osa keyed a three-run sixth inning for the Dores with a leadoff homer, his 16th of the year. Pedro Alvarez followed with an infield single and Flaherty walked before Meingasner moved them over with a sac bunt. Shea Robin walked and Ryan Davis was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in a run. Andrew Giobbi grounded out, allowing Flaherty to score to make it 4-1.
Jared Mitchell hit a homer to right off of Minor in the seventh to cut the lead to 4-1.
VU responded with two runs in the bottom half, courtesy of a two-run single by Ryan Davis, to close out the scoring.
Flaherty extended his hitting streak to 23 games and finished with a team high two hits on the night.
Byrd picked up the loss for LSU after giving up four runs on eight hits in 5.1 innings of work with two strikeouts.
The Commodores and Tigers will play the final game of the three game series Saturday at noon. Junior southpaw Cody Crowell (2-1, 4.60 ERA) will take the mound for VU, while LSU will counter with junior righthander (10-3, 4.35 ERA).
LSU 000 100 010 -2 5 0
Vanderbilt 010 003 02x -6 10 2
Byrd, Bertuccini (6), Coleman (7), Ardoin (7), Cain (8) and Lara, Ochinko. Minor, T. Davis (8) and Robin. W- Minor 8-1, L-Byrd 6-2. Sv- T. Davis (1). HR- VU: de la Osa (16).
