Here is your SEC Recap for May 7th.
#1 Vanderbilt 10 Kentucky 3
Lexington, Ky. – Vanderbilt bounced back to even the series with Kentucky in a 10-3 win Saturday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
Commodores’ starter Grayson Garvin cruised through eight innings to notch his team-best 10th win of the year. The big lefty allowed one run on six hits with two strikeouts and no walks. Garvin scattered two hits over the first five innings before allowing a home run to Chad Wright to open the bottom of the sixth inning.
The VU offense scored six runs on six hits in the first inning and never looked back. Jason Esposito’s two-run double started the scoring and Conrad Gregor’s first career grand slam capped the rally. Freshmen Tony Kemp and Gregor combined to go 7-for-9 with six RBI and four runs scored. Esposito added two doubles and Connor Harrell singled twice to help Vandy score 10 runs for the seventh time in the team’s last eight games. Wright paced the Wildcats driving in two runs and going 3-for-5.
Vanderbilt Recap
Kentucky Recap
Ole Miss 10 #2 South Carolina 2
OXFORD, Miss. – The Rebel offense was in full swing from the start on Saturday, using home runs in the first two innings to take an early lead that would never be relinquished as Ole Miss (26-21, 10-13 SEC) defeated No. 1 South Carolina (37-9, 18-5 SEC) by a score of 10-2.
The win evened the weekend series at a game each with Sunday’s rubber game to be played at 1:30 p.m. at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.
Five Ole Miss players tallied multiple-hits on the afternoon, led by three hit days from Austin Anderson and Miles Hamblin, while Hamblin and Alex Yarbrough both hit home runs in the first two frames to give momentum to the Rebels.
Ole Miss Recap
South Carolina Recap
No. 4 Florida (36-12/18-6 SEC) used a game-tying single by junior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) and a go-ahead two-run single by junior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) as part of a three-run seventh inning to defeat No. 18 Arkansas (32-15/12-12 SEC), 5-3, on Saturday night in front of 9,862 fans, the ninth-largest crowd in Baum Stadium history.
The win enabled the Gators to salvage the finale of the three-game series and halt an eight-game losing streak to the Hogs in Fayetteville. Sophomore Austin Maddox (Jacksonville, Fla.) (2-0) threw 3.1 scoreless and hitless innings to earn the victory.
AUBURN, Ala. – Derek Varnadore struck out seven and didn’t allow a run in his second complete game shutout of the season and Auburn’s first SEC shutout of the year as the Auburn baseball team clinched its series with Georgia with a 3-0 win on Saturday afternoon. The win improved Auburn’s record to 25-21, 11-12 SEC while Georgia fell to 24-23, 13-10 SEC.
“We continue to talk about the importance of someone on the mound and certainly Derek Varnadore was the difference today. His performance was outstanding. You saw two very good pitchers going toe-to-toe and we were fortunate to scratch a few runs,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “Against a good team like Georgia there are not a lot of opportunities to score runs so we had better pitch and we did that again today.”
Varnadore (5-2), who shutout Radford in his second start at Auburn on February 27, allowed just three Georgia base runners to reach second base over the course of nine innings, scattering five hits and three walks to earn his first win since April 9 at Kentucky.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Junior left-handed pitcher Adam Morgan tossed 8.0 scoreless innings, striking out five batters while scattering eight hits to propel the Alabama baseball team to a 4-0 win over the LSU Tigers on Saturday at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. The Crimson Tide improves to 29-20 overall and 11-12 in Southeastern Conference play while LSU falls to 30-18 (8-15 SEC).
Morgan (5-4) wrapped up another solid performance on the mound, throwing 113 pitches versus the Tigers, 77 of which were strikes, before giving way to Jonathan Smart to close out the ninth inning to earn his ninth save of the season. Morgan has lasted six or more innings in nine consecutive starts for the Crimson Tide.
“Well the story of the game is Adam Morgan, he was just terrific from the first inning on,” UA head coach Mitch Gaspard said. “I don’t know how many he retired there in a row, but he really got it going there in the second and third innings. You could see early on that his stuff was really good today. We tried to let him finish at the end but his pitch count was getting up a little, so Jonathan Smart came in and did a nice job to settle it down there in the ninth.”
Mississippi State 5 Tennessee 3
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Nick Routt picked up his first win as Mississippi State led from start to finish in a 5-3 Southeastern Conference baseball win over Tennessee Saturday afternoon at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Coupled with Friday’s 16-5 victory, the Bulldogs clinched the weekend series with Saturday’s victory. For MSU, it is their second conference victory of the season. The Bulldogs also claimed their first conference road series since winning twice at Ole Miss in 2009. MSU also takes a road series in Knoxville for the first time since 2001. Granted, MSU did win one game in a rain-shortened series in 2007.
With the victory, the Bulldogs improved to 28-18 overall and 10-13 in league play. Tennessee fell to 22-22 and 5-18. MSU remains tied with Ole Miss for fourth place in the Western Division standings and eighth place in the overall league standings. For the Bulldogs, this marks their most league wins since 2007.
Mississippi State Recap
Tennessee Recap
