Florida tops Vandy on Sunday to take series
Florida jumped on Vanderbilt for five runs in the first four innings and held on for a 5-3 win over the Commodores at Gainesville's Florida Park on Sunday afternoon.
The Gators got all five runs off starter Chris McElwain, the sophomore who got his first career start after a big relief performance last Sunday, but couldn't find his control in this one.
Enrique Bradfield Jr. had four of the Commodores' hits, while Isaiah Thomas hit the team's lone home run.
Vanderbilt left eight on base, failing to score in the seventh after getting the first two men on, and tallying just once in the seventh after three of the first four hitters reached.
Vanderbilt (32-9, 14-7 Southeastern Conference) fell a game behind Arkansas for the league's overall lead and is now tied with Tennessee atop the Eastern Division.
It's the first time the Commodores have lost consecutive games this season.
McElvain spent most of his day in trouble and finished with five runs (all earned) allowed over three-plus innings, with four walks and five hits.
Jacob Young singled to start the game and then Kris Armstrong hammered a double over Thomas's head in right for the first run. Kirby McMullen followed with an RBI single.
Thomas homered to start the second, and McElvain got a 1-2-3 second.
But in the third, McElvain walked the bases loaded with one out, then, gave up a two-RBI single to Sterlin Thompson that made the Gators' lead 4-1.
In the fourth, Jordan Butler walked and shortstop Josh Rivera followed with a double to deep left to chase McElvain after three-plus innings and 80 pitches.
Patrick Reilly got three straight outs from there, but one came on a Young ground-out that scored another run.
The freshman then threw a scoreless fifth, and the Commodores got a rally going when Dominic Keegan walked to start the sixth
Two batters later, the Gators went to relief ace Christian Scott, who gave up a first-pitch single to Thomas and then a single to Jack Bulger to load the bases before Parker Noland's sacrifice fly to left to score a run.
Vandy had a chance to tie, but Rivera snagged Tate Kolwyck's liner to keep it at 5-3.
That turned out to be enough. Luke Murphy threw two scoreless innings to keep the Gators off the board, but Vandy went 1-2-3 in the eighth and couldn't get Bradfield past second in the ninth.
The Commodores travel to Louisville (23-14) for a mid-week game at 6 Central on Tuesday (a game shown on ESPNU) before returning home for a three-game series with Alabama (28-15, 11-10) next weekend, starting on Friday.