Vanderbilt baseball will face elimination after falling to Oregon in NCAA Nashville Regional
Vanderbilt baseball will face elimination from the NCAA Tournament after falling to Oregon, 8-7, on Saturday at Hawkins Field.
The Commodores' offense couldn't keep pace with Oregon's as the Ducks were consistently pesky working counts and got big hits when they needed them, something Vanderbilt was unable to do. Two separate late rallies from the Commodores fell just short.
No. 2 seed Oregon (39-20) advances directly to Sunday's Nashville Regional final while top-seeded Vanderbilt (41-19) will face third-seeded Xavier (38-24) at 2 p.m. on Sunday in an elimination game with the opportunity to advance to the regional final with a win. Should the Commodores win Sunday's first game, they will need to beat the Ducks on Sunday at 8 p.m. and then again on Monday to advance.
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Shaky start for Owen
In his second start back after missing two weeks with injury, left-hander Hunter Owen had a shaky first inning. He hit a batter and gave up a single, with those runners scoring on an error and a groundout.
Owen gave up another home run in the second inning, though he settled down after that.
Ryan Ginther also struggled in his return after missing the SEC Tournament, giving up four runs on four hits and a walk in the sixth inning.
The Ducks' offense consistently battled, fouling off several pitches with two strikes and working up Vanderbilt's pitch counts.
Offense early
Vanderbilt countered Oregon's offensive onslaught early by scoring one run in the first inning with a Parker Noland RBI single, then three in the second with an Enrique Bradfield Jr. sacrifice fly, a Davis Diaz RBI groundout and an RJ Schreck home run.
But the offense was quiet after that, with one hit between the third and eighth innings, despite Oregon extending starter Turner Spoljaric through six innings. Spoljaric gave up four runs with two walks and two strikeouts.
Vanderbilt added a run in the seventh inning, albeit without a hit as four straight batters reached on free passes, including RJ Austin with the bases loaded. In the ninth, Schreck walked and Chris Maldonado hit a two-run home run to cut the deficit to one.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Vanderbilt baseball falls to Oregon, will face elimination from regional
