OMAHA, Neb. – Vanderbilt used timely hitting, scoring four of its five runs with two outs, to open the 2014 College World Series with a 5-3 win over Louisville on Saturday night at TD Ameritrade Park.
Carson Fulmer’s conversion to a starter continued to pay dividends for Vanderbilt (47-19), as the righty went 5 1/3 innings, scattering six hits and allowing two runs. With six strikeouts, Fulmer (7-1) improved his totals to 20 strikeouts against four walks in three NCAA Tournament starts.
Fulmer, who made 16 appearances out of the Commodores’ bullpen this year, watched his teammates go 3 1/3 innings in relief to put down Louisville (50-16), which lost its fourth-straight game at the CWS dating back to 2007.
Adam Ravenelle capped the Commodores’ relief efforts with 2 1/3 scoreless innings, collecting his first career save.
With two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the second, Vanderbilt struck for three runs to assume the early lead. Walks to John Norwood and Kyle Ellison were sandwiched around a Ro Campbell single, loading the bases and bringing Roger Williams, Louisville’s pitching coach, to the mound.
Kyle Funkhouser’s (13-3) first pitch following the meeting escaped catcher Kyle Gibson, allowing Norwood to sprint home with the game’s first run on the wild pitch. On a 1-2 count, Dansby Swanson lined a double to left center, clearing the bases and putting a crooked number on the board for the Commodores.
The two-out magic worked again for Vanderbilt in the fourth, as Swanson singled before stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing error. Bryan Reynolds drove a 2-2 offering from Funkhouser to the right center gap, bringing Swanson across the dish.
After struggling early, Funkhouser settled down over his last two frames of work. In 125 pitches, the sophomore went six innings, walking six and striking out five. Entering tonight’s start, Funkhouser had allowed a total of four earned runs over his last eight starts before the Commodores touched him for four.
Entering the night 36-8 when scoring first, Vanderbilt would see Louisville threaten to become the first team to overcome a four-run deficit in Omaha since South Carolina in the fourth game of the 2011 CWS.
After stranding runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings, Louisville finally broke through against Fulmer with a pair of runs in the fifth. Grant Kay singled up the middle ahead of Sutton Whiting, who pulled a liner to right. The sinking liner evaded a diving Rhett Wiseman and rolled to the fence, allowing Kay to score standing up on the triple. Whiting would cross home as Vanderbilt conceded the run on Gibson’s groundout.
Louisville continued to close the gap in the seventh as Nick Solak singled to right with two outs. Zach Lucas’ slide into home just beat the tag of Ellison to bring the Cardinals within one, 4-3.
With Solak and Jeff Gardner on second and first, respectively, Ravenelle entered the game and enticed Alex Chittenden to fly to right on his first pitch of the evening to end the threat.
The Commodores would get the run back in the bottom half of the inning after a perfectly executed hit- and-run put Vince Conde at third with one out. A passed ball allowed Vanderbilt to add its fifth run of the game.
The Cardinals nearly grabbed the game’s first run in the second, but Vanderbilt left fielder Bryan Reynolds kept Louisville off the board, running into the fence to snag a Kay drive to the wall with Chittenden on second.
Winning its opening game of the CWS for the second time in as many appearances, Vanderbilt will meet UC Irvine on Monday, June 16, at 7 p.m. CST.
Louisville will take on Texas in Monday’s early game at 2 p.m. CST, where one of the teams will snap its four-game CWS losing streak and stay alive in the tournament.
Be sure to check out our other coverage from Vanderbilt’s 5-3 victory:
