April 19, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -
Game 1 Box Score in PDF Format
Game 2 Box Score in PDF Format
It took until 6:30 pm CT on Saturday night for Auburn to win the first game of its series with Vanderbilt in what turned out to be a long day of baseball for both clubs. Auburn, which held a two-run lead when Friday night's game was suspended due to rain, went on to win 6-3 in the resumed game which was played after No. 11 Vanderbilt earned an 8-2 victory in the second game of the series.
Bryan Woodall pitched all three innings in the resumed game, allowing two hits while striking out two to earn his ninth save of the season and his career.
"I am not used to entering a game in the seventh, so it was a little different situation for me," Woodall said. "I didn't try to overpower anyone, I just tried to let my ball work and rely on the guys behind me. When I'm rolling ground balls and they are making plays, we have a chance to win."
Auburn had held a 5-3 lead after scoring three in the top of the seventh on Friday night before the game was halted due to rain. When it resumed again on Saturday, Woodall threw a scoreless seventh and then Hunter Morris tattooed his ninth home run of the season to give Auburn a three-run cushion, which Woodall preserved with his first three-inning outing of the season.
"We know from past games that we can feel comfortable with a any lead with Bryan on the mound," Morris said. "He's just a great competitor and it doesn't matter what the situation is. It (the homerun) was a big run coming off the game before. Vanderbilt had a lot of momentum coming into the resumed game and to go out and get a run in our first chance at bat was pretty big for us."
Grant Dayton (5-1) earned the win in game one, allowing three runs on nine hits in 6.0 innings while Mike Minor (4-3) took the loss, allowing five runs in 7.0 innings.
Saturday's first game, game two of the series, had a different feel to it as Vanderbilt roughed up Cory Luckie (4-4) for seven runs on nine hits to claim a 8-2 win.
Shea Robin's single to center with men on first and second and two down in the bottom of the second gave Vanderbilt a 1-0 lead, an advantage it would not relinquish for the rest of the game.
Luckie was able keep it a one-run game in the fourth as Ryan Flaherty led off with a triple but was stranded there after Luckie caught a liner off the bat of Dominic de la Osa and then induced consecutive groudouts to third baseman David Cunningham. However he was not able to duplicate the feat in the fifth as Flaherty's two-out double down the line in right with runners on the corners gave Vanderbilt a 3-0 lead.
Auburn got one back in the sixth as Matt Hall singled, moved to second on Trent Mummey's groundout and scored as Justin Hargett singled to center to make it 3-1 only to see Vanderbilt answer as Robin and Alex Feinberg collected RBI singles and Pedro Alvarez drove in two with a double to the wall in left-center, knocking Luckie (4-4) out of the game.
Michael Hurst entered for Luckie in the sixth and retired all four hitters he faced but Vanderbilt tacked on a run in the eighth off of Evan Crawford with back-to-back two-out doubles by David Macias and Feinberg to make it 8-1.
Auburn scored a final run in the eighth as Ben Jones doubled and scored on Morris' single through the over exaggerated shift towards first.
With the split, Auburn's record stands at 23-17, 6-10 SEC while Vanderbilt's is now 27-11, 9-7 SEC.
The two teams will play the third and final game of the series at 1pm on Sunday. Fr. RHP Bradley Hendrix (1-0, 4.74) will take the ball for Auburn while Vanderbilt will send Jr. RHP Nick Christiani (4-1, 3.57) to the hill.