Baseball: Vanderbilt 11, Monmouth 1

Nashville, Tenn. (VU AD)– Starting pitcher Tyler Beede set the tone early in No. 2 Vanderbilt’s 11-1 win over Monmouth Saturday afternoon at Hawkins Field that clinched the series.

Beede (2-0) opened the game by striking out the side in the first and second innings while the Commodores (6-1) built a 4-0 lead. The Hawks (1-2) finally managed to put a ball in play in the third when Owen Stewart led off the inning with a single. Beede, however, was unfazed getting the next three batters to fly out. The right-hander pitched himself into a jam in the fourth when he hit two batters but limited the Hawks to only one run in the inning. He finished his afternoon retiring nine of the final 10 batters he faced allowing only two hits. In his seventh and final frame, he punched out two batters to run his total to a career-high nine.

Vanderbilt jumped on the Hawks early, scoring in each of the first four innings and six of their eight at-bats of the day. Connor Harrell cashed in a one-out Jack Lupo double in the first and drove in Chris Harvey, who knocked in a run with his first career triple, in the second inning. John Norwood led off the second inning with his first home run of the year with a towering shot over the scoreboard in left field to help build a 4-0 lead after two. Tony Kemp took over sole possession of the Vanderbilt school record for career triples in the third inning when he laced a line drive into the left-center field gap to score two runs. Kemp was gunned down at home attempting to turn his record setting triple into an inside the park home run but now has 16 triples in 135 career games.

Freshmen Rhett Wiseman and Kyle Smith each picked up their first career hits, singling in their lone at-bats. Once again, the Dores’ offense was balanced with 10 players collecting at least one hit. Lupo led the way with three hits, three runs scored and four stolen bases to finish one steal shy of the school record. The senior now has five hits in the in the first two days of the series. Harvey went 2-for-3 with a career-best three runs scored and Connor Harrell ran his season total to 13 RBI.

Monmouth starter Dan Smith (0-1) was pegged with the loss allowing six runs on eight hits over three innings. The Hawks were limited to just two hits in the game and none after the fourth inning.

The Commodores and Hawks wrap up the series tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for noon at Hawkins Field. Lefty Philip Pfeifer (1-0) gets the ball after earning his first career victory at Belmont on Tuesday. Monmouth will send right-hander Jonathan Shippee (0-0) to the hill in the finale. For ticket information call 615.322.GOLD or visit vucommodores.com.

            1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R   H E
MONMOUTH    0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0   1-  2 1
VANDERBILT  1 3 2 1 0 2 2 0 X  11- 14 0

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