Raby, bullpen lead Vandy to series win at Mississippi State
Vanderbilt's Patrick Raby held Mississippi State scoreless, and the Commodore bullpen kept the Bulldogs in check until the VU offense got going, as VU hammered MSU by a 10-1 score at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Miss., on Saturday afternoon.
Raby threw five innings, scattering two hits and two walks, and four relievers closed it out from there. Those five struck out 14 men and gave up seven hits, just one for extra bases. Raby (2-2) picked up the win.
The Commodores pounded out 16 hits, with Austin Martin leading the 'Dores with three and two runs. Pat DeMarco, J.J. Bleday, Connor Kaiser, Ethan Paul and Julian Infante each chipped in two. DeMarco led the Commodores with two runs batted in.
Vanderbilt improves to 14-5, and 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference.
The Commodores clung to a 1-0 lead--the run came on a first-inning wild pitch--until VU erupted for seven hits and seven runs in the top of the eighth.
Five of those hits came with two outs, including doubles from Clarke and Paul.
The Commodores dodged one bullet after another coming into the eighth. MSU left 14 men on base, including at least one in every inning, and didn't score until Tanner Allen's solo homer in the ninth off freshman Aaron Brown.
The biggest missed opportunity came in the fourth, when MSU had two on with nobody out, and later, the bases loaded with one down. But Raby induced a pop-up to Jayson Gonzalez--who had an error earlier in the inning--and a come-backer to get out of that.
In the sixth, with Jackson Gillis now pitching, MSU had two on thanks to Paul and Infante errors to start the inning. The sophomore sandwiched strikeouts around a fly-out to Bleday in right to escape that.
MSU's Luke Alexander doubled off Gillis to begin the seventh. Gillis got struck out Allen before departing for freshman Justin Willis. who hit the first batter he faced before striking out the next two.
Paul led off the eighth with a single, and Infante followed another. That one got by left fielder Rowdey Jordan, and made VU's lead two.
The teams finish the series at 11 a.m. on Sunday. The game may be seen on WatchESPN. VU has not announced its starting pitcher.
NOTES
Vanderbilt improved to 14th in the RPI as of 6:45 Central on Saturday evening.
Martin started at DH and hit in the cleanup spot. He's now reached base 38 times in 15 games.
Vanderbilt threw 158 pitches on Saturday.
Paxton Stover struck out two and pitched the entire eighth inning.
SCORING SUMMARY
V1: DeMarco scored on a wild pitch. VU, 1-0
V8: Paul scored on Infante's single. VU, 2-0
V8: Martin single scored Infante. VU, 3-0
V8: Bleday singled scored Martin. VU, 4-0
V8: Clarke double to left scored Kaiser, and Bleday scores on fielding error. VU, 6-0
V8: Gonzalez single up the middle scored Clarke. VU, 7-0
V8: Paul double scored Gonzalez. VU, 8-0
V9: DeMarco single up the middle scores Martin, Ray. VU, 10-0
MSU 9: Allen homer to right. VU, 10-1