Vanderbilt Pitches Its Way to a Sweep Over Georgia

Vanderbilt Athletics photo

By Jake Mastroianni

Georgia (33-9, 10-8) has had a tough time recently facing some great pitching staffs, and this time it was the Vanderbilt Commodores (30-10, 11-7) who were able to slow down their bats. 

The Bulldogs still hit five home runs on the weekend, but three of them were solo shots. And their multi-run homers happened to come in the game when Vanderbilt’s offense exploded. 

Like we saw against Texas, the way to slow down the Georgia attack is to make them beat you and not give up any free passes. In the Thursday and Saturday games when Vanderbilt held Georgia to a combined 3 runs, they walked just two batters total and did not hit anyone. 

When Georgia scored their seven runs on Friday, it was partly because Vandy’s pitchers walked six and hit three batters. 

The limited free runners combined with the 39 strikeouts by Vanderbilt pitching were a big reason why they were able to get the sweep. 

Game 1: Vanderbilt 3, Georgia 1

The way this game started, it looked like Georgia was about to begin another slugfest after Slate Alford homered as the first batter of the game. 

But it ended up being a pitcher’s duel between Georgia’s Brian Curley and Vanderbilt’s JD Thompson. 

Vanderbilt never got anything going against Curley until the bottom of the seventh when freshman Brodie Johnston led off with a game-tying home run. 

Rustan Rigdon followed that with a single that chased Curley from the game. Colin Barczi singled in a run to give the Commodores the lead, but a base-running mistake kept it from being a bigger inning. 

That single by Barczi was on a slap bunt that went off the foot of Georgia first baseman Ryland Zaborowski. The slugger would sit out the final two games of the series. 

But it was enough for Thompson, who only had one major jam through 8 innings. In the 7th, Georgia had the first two reach and then tried to move them over with a sacrifice bunt, but Vandy got the out at third. Then Thompson struck out the next two batters to escape. 

Thompson’s file line: 8 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 14 Ks

Curley’s final line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 8 Ks

Sawyer Hawks closed out the game for the Commodores with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. 

Game 2: Vanderbilt 13, Georgia 7

This game was the outlier of the weekend as the bats were hot and neither starter made it past the fourth inning. 

The Commodores put up a crooked number in the second, third, fifth, and sixth innings with the biggest mark coming in the sixth when they plated 6 runs. 

Georgia only scored in two innings, but it was a three-spot and a four-spot in the fourth and seventh innings. 

Barczi got it started with a 2-run home run in the second, and then Johnston hit a 3-run shot in the third. 

Georgia’s Daniel Jackson answered with a 3-run homer in the fourth, but then Vandebilt scored 7 unanswered runs to take a commanding lead. 

Johnston would go on to drive in 7 runs and hit his 3rd home run of the weekend. 

Miller Green finished off the game for Vanderbilt, tossing 2.1 scoreless and hitless innings. 

Game 3: Vanderbilt 5, Georgia 2

It was another great pitching matchup in the finale between Georgia’s Leighton Finley and Vanderbilt’s Connor Fennell.

Finley allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk over 5 innings with 8 strikeouts. Vanderbilt hitters did a good job battling him to drive up his pitch count. 

Fennell lasted 5.2 innings, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits with no walks and 11 strikeouts over 83 pitches. 

Fennell was able to blow 89 MPH by the Georgia hitters by consistently locating his fastball at the top of the zone. 

Robbie Burnett put the Bulldogs on the board first with a solo shot in the fourth to break up a perfect game. 

Vanderbilt put the first two runners on to being the bottom of the fourth and was able to plate one as Jonathan Vastine hustled down the line to avoid an inning-ending double-play. But then Henry Hunter sent a strike down to second to catch him trying to steal. 

A leadoff walk by Vandy’s Mac Rose was later paid off when Riley Nelson put one over the green monster for an oppo-taco 2-run homer that gave Vandy the lead. 

In the sixth, Slate Alford hit his second no-doubt homer of the weekend to bring Georgia within 1 run. 

But Vandy took advantage of Georgia's mistakes in the seventh and played a little small ball to plate a pair of runs and pad their lead for closer Sawyer Hawks who came on to pick up his second save of the weekend. 

What’s Next

• Vanderbilt has a mid-week game at home against Middle Tennessee State on Tuesday before heading to Oxford where they’ll face a mad Ole Miss team that just lost a series to South Carolina. 

• Georgia will have a tough mid-week game at Clemson before hosting another really good pitching team in Oklahoma. 

*****