Week 6 Vanderbilt Baseball Notebook

Record Overall: 17-10; Record for the Week: 3-2

Last Week:
3/24 Vanderbilt 10, Austin Peay 5 (Hawkins Field)
3/25 Vanderbilt 4, Wright State 0 (Hawkins Field)
3/27 Vanderbilt 12, Auburn 3 (Auburn, Ala.)
3/28 Auburn 5, Vanderbilt 3 (Auburn, Ala.)
3/29 Auburn 11, Vanderbilt 10 (Auburn, Ala.)

This Week (Buy Tickets):
4/1 at Belmont 6 p.m. CT at Greer Stadium
4/3 vs. Florida (SUN TV) 6 p.m. CT at Hawkins Field
4/4 vs. Florida (FSN TV) 3 p.m. CT at Hawkins Field
4/5 vs. Florida (COX TV) 1 p.m. CT at Hawkins Field

Notes:
Vanderbilt went 3-2 on the week, winning a pair of midweek games against Austin Peay and Wright State, while losing two of three at Auburn over the weekend … The Commodores’ four-game winning streak was snapped in Saturday’s loss to the Tigers … VU has now lost five straight SEC series dating back to last season against Georgia (May 9-11). They are 4-11 in league games in that span. The last time VU has lost five straight series was in 2002 when they lost six in a row. The last time the Dores have lost three straight conference series in a single season was in 2006 … The series loss to Auburn was the first since the 2002 season and the first time the Commodores have lost in five series against the Tigers under Tim Corbin … Seven of the 10 losses this season have been by two runs or less. VU is 2-5 in one run games and 1-2 in two run games (3-7 combined).

Offensively the Commodores had a pretty strong week hitting .368 with five homers, a triple, 13 doubles and 39 runs scored in five games (7.8 per game). In the three game series against Auburn, VU hit .408 as a team with three homers, 10 doubles and 25 runs scored (8.3 per game) … Freshman Jason Esposito continued his solid first-year as a Commodore going 9-for-18 (.500) on the week with three doubles and five RBI. He was 7-for-12 (.583) in the Auburn series with two doubles and four RBI … Redshirt freshman Aaron Westlake broke out of a mild hitting slump with a 10-for-21 (.476) week with two doubles and five RBI. He had two four-hit games in the Auburn series and went 9-for-14 (.643) with two doubles and four RBI and six runs scored in the three games. His average is now .426 on the year (third in the SEC).

Junior Andrew Giobbi returned to the lineup this weekend, starting all three games in right field while his broken left hand continues to heal. He was 6-for-14 (.429) on the weekend with a homer and three RBI … Freshman Riley Reynolds went 8-for-20 (.400) with two doubles, five RBI and four runs scored over five games and is now hitting .346 on the season … Sophomore Steven Liddle went 8-for-21 (.381) with two doubles, a triple, one homer and four RBI … Sophomore Curt Casali was 7-for-20 (.350) with two doubles and six runs scored with four RBI … The big offensive weekend pushed the Commodores batting average to .320 for the year, third best in the league.

The week pitching wise started out strong with the first shutout of the year in a 4-0 win over Wright State on Wednesday, but ended up allowing 19 runs in the three games against Auburn (6.48 ERA). For the week the team compiled a 4.81 ERA with 47 strikeouts and 21 walks in 43.0 innings … Junior ace Mike Minor picked up his first SEC win of the year in Friday’s 12-3 win over Auburn. He struck out a season high 11 batter in seven innings of work and allowed three runs, two earned, off of five hits. He didn’t allow a homer to the Tigers bash brigade that pounded seven the rest of the weekend and now boast 58 on the season to lead the league and NCAA.

Five hurlers, Chase Reid (3.0), Grayson Garvin (2.0), Drew Hayes (2.0), Richie Goodenow (1.0) and Sonny Gray (1.0) combined on a four-hit shutout over Wright State. Reid has extended his scoreless innings streak to 13.1 innings, while Hayes has not allowed a run in 11.2 innings. VU improved defensively over the five games with just three errors in 185 chances (.984 fielding percentage).

VU will play Belmont at Greer Stadium at 6 p.m. on Wednesday before hosting red-hot Florida (winners of nine of 10 including SEC series sweeps of Tennessee and Alabama) over the weekend. Of note, the Belmont game was originally scheduled to be played at Hawkins Field but renovations at Greer Stadium caused the teams to flip-flop home and home dates. The March 18th contest between the teams was played at Hawkins Field instead.