LOS ANGELES — The Commodores left 12 men on base Friday night and couldn’t overcome the Bruins six-run fifth inning suffering their first loss of the season.
Touted as a pitchers duel between two of the top sophomore pitchers in the nation, UCLA’s Gerrit Cole (2-0) gave up just two runs on four hits in five innings with eight strikeouts and two walks.
UCLA got on the board in the third when shortstop Niko Gallego tripled and scored on a RBI groundout by Cody Regis. The run ended Sonny Gray’s consecutive scoreless innings streak at 19 and two-thirds inning dating back to last season.
The Bruins added an unearned run in the fourth on a RBI groundout by leftfielder Cody Keefer. Tyler Rahmatulla led off with a double to left-center and Justin Uribe followed with an infield single to shortstop Brian Harris. Harris tried to throw him out at first but the throw was high and glanced off of Curt Casali’s glove at first. Rahmatulla advanced to third on the error and then scored on Keefer’s groundout to second.
UCLA knocked Gray out of the game in the fifth and plated six runs in the inning to take a commanding 8-0 lead. After striking out the lead off batter, Gray gave up three consecutive hits, capped by a RBI single by Marc Navarro. He then walked Tyler Rahmatulla to load the bases and end his night. Richie Goodenow came on in relief and gave up a two-run single to pinch-hitter Dean Espy and then got Keefer to fly out to left. Drew Hayes came on and gave up a two-run double to Brett Krill to end the six-run inning.
Gray (1-1) allowed six runs, five earned, on seven hits in four and a third innings of work with six strikeouts and two walks.
VU knocked Cole out of the game in the sixth when Andrew Giobbi singled and Curt Casali doubled to lead off the inning. The Dores would score two runs in the stanza on a bases loaded balk by reliever Matt Grace and a RBI infield single by Brian Harris.
Navarro’s RBI single in the bottom of the sixth extended the lead to 9-2.
The Commodores will be back in action tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. CT against USC. Right-hander Taylor Hill (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will take the mound for VU, while the Trojans are starting right-hander Chad Smith (0-1, 12.46 ERA).
Vanderbilt 000 002 000 – 2 7 2
UCLA 001 161 000 – 9 11 1
Gray, Goodenow (5), Hayes (5) and Giobbi. Cole, Grace (6), Goeddel (6), Klein (9) and Rodriguez. W- Cole (2-0), L- Gray (1-1). Sv- None. HR: None.
