Paul's two bombs lead Vandy past Evansville
Vanderbilt's Ethan Paul hit a pair of home runs, and Commodore pitchers limited Evansville to four hits in a 6-1 win over the Purple Aces at Hawkins Field on Tuesday evening.
Reid Schaller started on the mound, firing three perfect innings with three strikeouts. Aaron Brown (two innings) Zach King and Paxton Stover (one each) also had scoreless outings.
Paul, who was 3-for-3, was the only Commodore with multiple hits. Jayson Gonzalez had a hit and drove in three.
Vanderbilt (23-14) has won three in a row, two in a row in the midweek, and six of seven overall.
After the Commodores stranded a man in each of the first and the second, VU broke through with two outs in the third. Connor Kaiser doubled down the line to left, then, Paul smashed a homer to left-center.
Gonzalez added a two-out single through the left side of the infield, putting Vandy up four, in the sixth.
Evansville (5-23) finally broke through in the seventh, when Justin Willis walked leadoff man Troy Beilsmith, who came around to score on a ground-out. The Purple Aces stranded men on the corners that inning with two out.
It's Evansville's 13th loss in a row, and 18th straight on the road.
NOTES
Paul's homers were his seventh and eighth on the season, which leads the team.
Gonzalez played his first game since the Georgia contest on April 7, a stretch of four games he'd missed.
It was Schaller's first career start.
Austin Martin extended his hitting streak to 10 games.
Left fielder Stephen Scott threw out Craig Shepherd as he attempted to stretch a single to a double in the eighth.
Playing Evansville (249 RPI) dropped VU's strength of schedule from two to five, and its RPI, from 20 to 21, according to WarrenNolan as of 9:15 Tuesday evening.
SCORING SUMMARY
VU 3: Paul homer to left-center scored Kaiser. VU, 2-0
VU 6: Gonzalez single through short scored DeMarco, Paul. VU, 4-0
EU 7: Tokarek ground-out to first off Willis scored Beilsmith. VU, 4-1
VU 8: Paul homer to left-center. VU, 5-1
VU 8: Gonzalez ground-out scored Fentress. VU, 6-1