Leiter leads Vanderbilt to series win at LSU

Vanderbilt right-hander Jack Leiter struck out 12 and allowed just one earned run in six innings, as the Commodores handled LSU, 11-2, at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., on Friday night.

Carter Young hit a three-run home run for Vanderbilt, while Jack Bulger added a two-run shot for the Commodores (22-3, 7-1 Southeastern Conference).

Enrique Bradfield Jr. and Jayson Gonzalez each drove in two runs for Vandy, while Spencer Jones had four hits, scored two and drove in one.

Nick Maldonado got his second save of the season by throwing three shutout innings.

It's Vandy's seventh weekend series win in seven tries. The Commodores ended the evening in first place in the SEC's Eastern Division, and tied with Ole Miss atop the league standings.

Leiter (7-0) allowed two runs and didn't allow a hit until the fifth, when Collier Crawford led off the inning and came around to score an unearned run later. That snapped a string of 20 2/3 hitless innings and 25 2/3 scoreless innings.

LSU's Cade Doughty hit a sixth-inning home run off Leiter for his only earned run of the night.

The offense gave Leiter plenty of cushion early.

With one out in the top of the second, LSU starterJaden HIll gave up a single to Jones and then Cooper Davis reached on an error by first baseman Tre’ Morgan. Hill started his at-bat with Gonzalez with a ball, then, after throwing another ball, let the game with apparent arm discomfort.

LSU gave the ball to lefty Alex Brady, who walked Gonzalez. Bradfield Jr. then followed with a blooper just out of the reach of center fielder Will Safford, as two runs scored and the freshman got a double.

Young then turned on a 3-2 pitch on the outer half of the plate and whacked it over the bleachers in left, giving Vanderbilt a 5-0 lead.

Bulger hammered a pitch from Spring Hill (Tenn.) native Blake Money into the left-center bleachers in the fifth to make it 7-0.

Leiter often has trouble throwing strikes in the first inning, and that was the case again Friday night. He caught his spikes on the mound on his last warm-up pitch of the first and that likely didn’t help.

After Leiter struck out Morgan swinging on a 97-mile-an-hour fastball to start his night,, Safford tried to bunt a pitch that rode in towards the letters and it deflected off his bat as Safford hit the ground. The ball trickled down third, where Gonzalez got to it and threw wildly to first for an error.

Leiter then walked Dylan Crews and Gavin Dugas to load the bases with one out.

But the right-hander recovered to strike out Doughty on a fastball swinging (96 miles an hour) and then get Cade Beloso on a fastball looking (95) to get out of the inning on 30 pitches.

Leiter rolled from there, striking out nine of the next 10 hitters he faced with just a one-out walk to Safford in the third as the only runner he allowed.

The night's only negative for the Commodores was a season-high four errors, coming from four different players.

Regular right fielder Isaiah Thomas didn't play on Saturday due to a nagging leg injury, but was available if needed. Davis started in right and Bulger, in left.

The teams play again at 2 Saturday in a game shown on the SEC Network Plus.

VU 2: Bradfield Jr. double to center scored Gonzalez, Davis. VU, 2-0

VU 2: Young homer to left scored Bradfield Jr., Gonzalez. VU, 5-0

VU 5: Bulger homer run to left center scored Rodriguez. VU, 7-0

LSU 5: Safford’s ground-out scored Crawford. VU, 7-1

VU 6: Young triple to right scored Bradfield. VU, 8-1

LSU 6: Doughty home run. VU, 8-2

VU 7: Jones single to center scored Noland. VU, 9-2

VU 7: Gonzalez triple to right scored Bulger, Jones. VU, 11-2