A Weekend Affair: Three Straight Shutouts Spark a 3-1 Week for the #2 Commodores

For 32 straight innings, Vanderbilt's pitching would have made Orel Hershiser proud. The Commodores (19-2, 2-1 SEC) racked up three straight shutout wins this week before their hurlers ran into trouble, posting a 3-1 record and a series win over Mississippi State in the team's SEC opener.

Vandy's pitching was nearly untouchable for the first three games of the week, including a two-hit shutout of Purdue in the team's final tuneup before league play started. Their weekend series continued the trend, holding Mississippi State scoreless for the first 19 innings of play. Sonny Gray and Grayson Garvin limited the Bulldogs to just seven hits in the first two games as the 'Dores cruised to a pair of early victories.

A sweep looked likely as Vandy jumped out to a 6-1 lead early against MSU in Sunday's finale, but the Bulldogs exploded with a five-run eighth inning that exposed some of the team's flaws in the bullpen. Despite threatening in the final two innings, the 'Dores were unable to come back this time, leading to their first defeat in 13 games and giving Florida an early edge in the SEC East. The Gators swept a huge series in Baton Rouge this weekend, taking three games against the #7 ranked Tigers at LSU.

Game 0: Vanderbilt 9, Purdue 0: Kevin Ziomek picked up his first win as a Commodore with five shutout innings and Vandy's bullpen took care of the rest, including 2.2 scoreless, hitless frames from T.J. Pecoraro. Jack Armstrong got into the mix as well, striking out the side in his first appearance of the year. In true Jack fashion, he also walked and plunked a batter - but since we haven't heard any reports of a Purdue batter dying at Hawkins Field this week, we'll presume that control issue wasn't with his fastball. Jason Esposito hit his first dinger of the year and had four RBI in the win.

Game 1: Vanderbilt 10, Mississippi State 0: Sonny Gray's draft stock got another boost Friday night, as the junior threw 7.1 strong innings to shut down the Bulldogs and improve his record to 5-0 in five starts this season. Gray allowed only four hits and struck out 10 batters to pick up the win, but also walked four (including two wild pitches and two hit batsmen) in the outing. Seven different Commodores had RBIs in the rout.

Game 2: Vanderbilt 4, Mississippi State 0: Grayson Garvin had his best outing as a Commodore Saturday afternoon, allowing only two hits in seven innings of work to earn his third win of the season. Curt Casali had a pair of RBIs in the win. 

Game 3: Mississippi State 9, Vanderbilt 8: Vandy's scoreless innings streak came to an end in the second inning, but the 'Dores still seemed in control of this one throughout the game, posting leads of 6-1 and 8-4 as the game wore on. Corey Williams continued an up and down road to recovery out of the bullpen with a solid, but unspectacular long relief showing. Lapses from Will Clinard and Navery Moore were more surprising, as both allowed several runners to reach base, leading to the MSU comeback. Moore got saddled with the loss, while Clinard was tagged with two earned runs in just .1 innings recorded. Aaron Westlake's third home run of the season was a bright spot for the Commodore offense, who couldn't pull out another miracle ending at Hawkins Field this time around.

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