Leiter, Vandy struggle in Saturday loss at Florida
Florida roughed up Vanderbilt ace Jack Leiter for seven runs in five innings as the Gators hammered the Commodores, 11-8, at Florida Ballpark in Gainesville, Fla. on Saturday evening.
Only five of Leiter's runs were earned thanks to a Commodore defense that didn't execute well for much of the game. But Leiter gave up three home runs--two to Jud Fabian--and also walked four.
Vanderbilt's defense also imploded with two errors and several other costly misplays throughout the night.
The Commodores dropped to 32-8 overall and 14-6 in the Southeastern Conference, and are a half-game ahead of Tennessee in the Eastern Division standings.
Florida's Tommy Mace got the win despite giving up seven runs (six earned) over eight innings, including home runs allowed to Max Romero and Parker Noland.
Leiter couldn’t command his fastball early. He walked Jacob Young and Nathan Hickey to start the game and then left a belt-high fastball over the plate that Fabian hammered out to left for a home run. At the end of the inning, Later was at 25 pitches, with his fastball sitting around 94-96 according to the TV.
In the second, Jordan Butler led off with a single to left. But Leiter then started throwing his fastball about 2-3 miles an hour slower and two things happened: He threw it for strikes and it moved more. As a result, Leiter struck out the next three hitters with fastballs of 94, 93 and 93.
But it went backwards in the third. Fabian hammered a Leiter slider out in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. Leiter left one belt-high to Kirby McMullen next and paid for that with a home run.
Leiter was done after four, when Hunter Owen got the first two outs in the fifth until Jack Bulger couldn't handle a wind-blown fly ball in left that dropped for a double. A Josh Rivera single plated an earned run, then, Young reached on a two-out error by Tate Kolwyck that plated another.
Florida's Kris Armstrong homered off Owen in the sixth for two more.
Vanderbilt scored in the first when Enrique Bradfield Jr. grounded back to the mound and Mace threw low to first, resulting in Bradfield reaching on an error. Bradfield took third when Dominic Keegan punched a single to right, then scored when Bulger dropped a liner into right, but Keegan was deked by right fielder Sterlin Thompson and was thrown out at second.
After Fabian’s three-run homer in the bottom of the inning, Kolwyck doubled, sending Spencer Jones to third before both scored on a Romero ground-out and a Bradfield single.
The ‘Dores took their first lead when Noland hammered a pitch out to left center off Mace in the third.
But it wouldn't last, as Florida answered with four each in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
Florida's win evened the series at a game apiece, with the third game scheduled for two Central.