Nashville, (Tenn.) ? Vanderbilt starting pitcher Jeremy Sowers held Kentucky to one run on just four hits, as the home standing Commodores beat Kentucky, 9-1, on Friday night in Nashville. Sowers, rated by many as the top left-handed pitcher in the country, struck out eight UK batters along the way before giving way to Tyler Rhoden with two outs in the eighth inning.
The loss dropped the Wildcats to 24-28 on the season, including a 7-21 mark in Southeastern Conference play. Vanderbilt improved to 37-16, evening its record at 14-14 in conference play.
?Jeremy Sowers is one of the best in the country and tonight he showed why,? said UK head coach John Cohen. ?We had some good at-bats against him at times, but just not enough of them. We haven?t had very many games like this one, and we?ll ask our team to come out and compete even harder tomorrow.?
Vanderbilt scored five runs on seven hits in the bottom of the third inning to take a 7-0 lead. Cesar Nicholas hit his 13th home run of the season, a two-run blast to center that scored Warner Jones. Mike Baxter then reached on a bunt single, chasing UK starter Craig Snipp from the mound. Aaron Garza doubled on the first pitch he saw from reliever Andy Myette before Tony Mansolino singled to score Baxter and Garza. Two batters later, Jonathan Douillard singled to bring home Mansolino with the Commodores? fifth run of the inning.
Sowers (8-5) picked up his eighth win of the season. Snipp (2-8) took the loss for UK, allowing five runs, four earned, over 2 1/3 innings of work.
Vandy got on the board first with an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning. Antoan Richardson reached on a Kentucky error, stole second and third base, and scored on a Cesar Nicholas single through the left side of the infield, giving the Commodores an early 1-0 lead.
The Commodores went up, 2-0, in the second inning when Aaron Garza singled and scored one batter later on Tony Mansolino?s double.
Nicholas struck again in the fourth, singling through the right side to score Richardson from second base and put VU up, 8-0.
Kentucky posed a threat in the top of the fifth as John Shelby doubled to lead the inning off and was followed by a Joe Naill walk. Sowers worked out of the jam, however, getting consecutive strikeouts and a line out to end the inning and keep the Cats scoreless.
Jones, the Southeastern Conference?s leading hitter entering the weekend, hit his eighth homer of the year in the sixth, a solo shot that extended the Commodore lead to 9-0.
The Wildcats got their run in the eighth inning as Billy Grace walked and scored from first on a Caleb Stewart double. The base hit extended Stewart?s hitting streak to 10 games. Stewart enjoyed a 20-game streak earlier this season, second-longest in the SEC this year.
Shelby was 2-for-3 with a walk to lead the Kentucky offense. Nicholas finished the game 4-for-4 with four runs batted in for the ?Dores.
The two teams continue the three-game series on Saturday with a 5 p.m. (ET) start at Hawkins Field. Kentucky will send senior Seth Stanley (6-2) to the mound for what will be the final start of his UK career. He will be opposed by Vanderbilt sophomore Ryan Mullins (6-2). All the action can be heard live in Lexington on 96.1 FM. Live audio and stats are available at www.ukathletics.com.
— UK —
