Vanderbilt Takes Bite Out of The Bisons

It was “Turnback the Clock” night at David Lipscomb University as the Vanderbilt Commodores rolled over a few blocks from their own home field for a mid-week game at Ken Dugan Field. Both teams wore throwback uniforms before a near capacity crowd. It was Vanderbilt, though, that made history tonight as they beat Lipscomb 13-10 to gain their 30th win of 2010.

Drew Hayes started for Vanderbilt and went 5 innings from the mound. In the first inning, Hayes gave up 3 runs after he gave up an opening single by Tyler Wilson, a walk to Tyler’s brother, Lee Wilson, and a homerun to Cory Hale. Hayes held Lipscomb to those three runs until the fourth inning when he gave up another 2-run bomb by Andrew Nickerson. In his five innings, Hayes (5-0) allowed 4 hits, 5 earned runs, 2 walks, and secured 7 strikeouts to get the win. Will Clinnard replaced Hayes to start the sixth and finished the game to pick up the save. In 4 innings, Clinnard allowed 7 hits, 5 earned runs, 3 walks, with no strikeouts. Lipscomb would not go quietly however, as Cory Hale blasted his second homerun of the night, a grand slam, in the bottom of the ninth.

The Vanderbilt bats were active and the Lipscomb pitchers were generous, allowing 14 walks on the night. Jason Esposito was 4 of 5, with homerun No. 8 on the year, and 5 RBIs. Drew Fann worked behind the dish and swung a big stick, going 3 for 3 with 2 RBIs. Aaron Westlake also collected 3 hits in going 3 for 5 with 1 RBI. Connor Harrell went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Anthony Gomez really is getting the job done as the leadoff man. He was 2-of -5 at the plate and walked once and scored 3 runs. In total Vanderbilt had 15 hits on the night.

Vanderbilt improves to 30-9 and Lipscomb falls to 13-25 in 2010. Vanderbilt will travel again on Wednesday to face the MTSU Blue Raiders (23-14) in Murfreesboro at 6 PM. This will be the last road test before the Commodores head east to take on Tennessee this weekend.