Week 9 Vanderbilt Baseball Notebook

by SID

Record Overall: 29-9, 8-7 SEC
Record for the Week: 3-1

Last Week
4/13: Vanderbilt 1, Middle Tennessee 0
4/16: Vanderbilt 11, Auburn 6
4/17: Auburn 12, Vanderbilt 2
4/18: Vanderbilt 3, Auburn 2

This Week
4/20: at Lipscomb, 6 p.m. CDT, Nashville
4/21: at Middle Tennessee, 6 p.m. CDT, Murfreesboro
4/23: at Tennessee (CSS), 6 p.m. CDT, Knoxville
4/24: at Tennessee (CSS), 6 p.m. CDT, Knoxville
4/25: at Tennessee, 1 p.m. CDT, Knoxville

Vanderbilt went 3-1 on the week, wrapping up an eight-game home stand with a 5-3 mark … The Commodores claimed the Auburn series with a walk-off homer by Aaron Westlake in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday. The win snapped a two series losing streak in SEC play. The Dores are one win away from reaching 30 wins in a season for the seventh straight season.

The pitching staff sported a 3.50 ERA on the week that included the fourth shutout of the year in the 1-0 win over Middle Tennessee. They had 37 strikeouts and 13 walks in 36.0 innings and now lead the SEC with a 3.06 ERA in 38 games … Drew Hayes threw 6.2 innings of four-hit shutout ball against MTSU with four strikeouts and two walks. Richie Goodenow (0.1) and Russell Brewer (2.0) finished out the game to preserve the shutout.

Sonny Gray snapped a two-game losing streak in Friday’s win over Auburn. He gave up three runs, one earned, on seven hits in 6.1 innings with seven strikeouts and five walks. The Smyrna, Tenn., native is now 2-3 in the SEC with a 1.83 ERA in five starts.

Taylor Hill had his second straight career long performance this weekend going 8.2 innings in Sunday’s win over the Tigers. A week after going 7.2 innings against South Carolina, he went 8.2 innings allowing two runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts no walks.

Chase Reid came on in relief on Saturday and allowed two runs on seven hits in 5.2 innings with eight strikeouts and a walk … Brewer picked up his fifth save of the year in the win over MTSU and now has 17 saves in his career.

The Commodore offense remains in a slump, with a team batting average of .226 with 17 runs scored in the five games (11 in the Friday win, six in the other four games) … Joe Loftus hit .400 (4-for-10) with a homer and two RBI and Anthony Gomez hit .364 (4-for-11) with two RBI to lead VU this week. Loftus now has five homers on the year, besting the four he hit a year ago.

Vanderbilt will open a season-long six game road trip starting this week against Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee and Tennessee. The Friday and Saturday games against Tennessee will be televised regionally on CSS.