Baseball: Vanderbilt 10, Long Beach State 4

NASHVILLE-- Kevin Ziomek struck out seven and walked just one as No. 2 ranked Vanderbilt downed the Long Beach State Dirtbags, 10-4. It was the season opener for both teams.

Vanderbilt won the game convincingly but early on it looked like the Dirtbags might pull off an upset. Jeff Yamaguchi's second inning double scored Richard Prigatano and gave LBSU an early 1-0 lead.

Vandy, however, would not trail very long. In the third inning the ‘Dores pounded out three hits including a double by Mike Yastrzemski that scored two runs. A pair of Dirtbag errors helped the Commodores plate five runs during that inning.

The hot Commodore bats continued in the fourth and fifth innings as the team combined for seven hits and scored five more runs to take a commanding 10-1 lead heading into the sixth inning.

In addition to Kevin Ziomek's solid six innings of work, the Commodores also saw freshman Tyler Ferguson pitch two innings allowing three runs with two strikeouts. Steven Rice gave up two hits but allowed no runs in the final inning of play.

Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin seemed pleased with the work of his pitchers and fielding in the opener.

"Kevin took us deep, Fergusen pitched relatively well for two innings and Rice finished it up," said Corbin. "That was a nice double play that was turned there by Dansby at the end of the game."

Jon Maciel took the loss for the Dirtbags.

The two teams will continue their three game series on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Hawkins Field.

                1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R   H E 
LONG BEACH ST.  0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 0   4- 10 2
VANDERBILT      0 0 5 3 2 0 0 0 X  10- 11 0

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