Gold tops Black in 11 innings on Thursday

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-The Gold team's John Norwood lined a single to right-center off Steven Rice, giving his squad an 8-7 victory in the first of Vanderbilt's three-game inter-squad fall series on Thursday night.

Norwood joined Connor Harrell and Tyler Campell with two hits each for the Gold squad, while Tony Kemp's three hits and four RBIs paced the Black team. Campbell and Zander Wiel each had two RBIs.

Jared Miler picked up the win in relief with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Each teams' pitching was lights-out early. Lefty Kevin Ziomek had a run between the first and third innings in which he struck out seven of eight batters, but had a rough fourth and was pulled for Tyler Ferguson. Black team starter T.J. Pecoraro was less flashy, but threw four scoreless innings before a string of two-out base runners in the fifth chased him.

A Harrell double scored Joel McKeithan for the game's first run for the Gold team in the fourth. A sacrifice fly by Wiel added another, with a wild pitch and a Campbell single accounting for the third and fourth runs.

But the Black team got to Pecoraro in the fifth with all kinds of two-out damage. Will Cooper reached on an infield single, Kyle Smith and Dansby Swanson singled, and then D.J. Luna walked in a run. Kemp ripped a triple to right, and later scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.

That was all the scoring for both teams until the eighth, when the Gold's Andrew Harris bunted in Wiel with the tying run.

The game went to extra innings, and each side started with the bases loaded and one out. Kemp singled to left to score a run for the Black in the 10th, and WIel popped the first pitch of the 10th to right far enough to score the tying run.

Vince Conde led off the 11th with a sac fly to right for the Black team, but Campbell led off with a walk in the bottom half of the inning to tie. With two outs, Norwood singled sharply for the game-winner.