Nashville, Tenn. – No. 17 Vanderbilt struggled offensively in a 4-1 loss to CSUN on Saturday at Hawkins Field.
Matadors’ starter Tei Vanderford held the Commodores (6-5) in check all day, turning in a complete game on 137 pitches to earn the win. The right-hander did not allow a Vandy hit until the fifth inning when Connor Kaiser legged out an infield single. Jeren Kendall scored the lone run of the game for the Commodores, hitting his fourth home run of the season with a solo shot to right-center field. VU put two runners aboard with a two-out rally in the seventh with singles from Kaiser and Ro Coleman but a strikeout ended the threat and the Commodores’ best opportunity.
The Matadors (6-4) took advantage of a Vanderbilt error in the third inning to score first. Kaiser failed to field a ground ball with one out in the inning to allow William Colantono to reach base and starter Patrick Raby walked the next two batters to load the bases. Fred Smith beat out a would-be double play to score the first run of the game and Riley Conlan’s single to right field made it 2-0 CSUN.
The Matadors tacked on another run in the sixth against Raby when Conlan led off the inning with a double and scored on Nick Sablock’s single. The run was the first earned run against Raby this season. The sophomore was pinned with his first loss of the season after allowing three runs, one earned, on four hits with seven strikeouts.
Vanderford allowed one run on four hits with eight strikeouts in the complete game victory. Conlan led the way offensively for CSUN with a pair of hits.
The Commodores look to salvage the series tomorrow at 4 p.m. with freshman Drake Fellows on the mound against the Matador’s Samuel Myers.
