No. 10 Commodores toss 12 Ks to take down Texas

ARLINGTON, Texas – Vanderbilt baseball beat Texas 12-2 Sunday at Globe Life Field to wrap up a 2-1 opening weekend in the College Baseball Showdown.

A day after scoring seven runs in the second inning against Oklahoma State, the Commodores plated eight runs in the second inning against Texas.

The Commodores took advantage of four defensive miscues by the Longhorns in the inning. Calvin Hewett reached on an error and scored the game’s first run on another error. Vandy loaded the bases for Alan Espinal who launched his second career single into right field to give the Commodores a 5-0 lead.

Espinal’s grand slam marked the first for Vanderbilt since Javier Vaz hit one in Hawaii on March 5, 2022.

RJ Austin singled with two outs to keep the inning going and RJ Schreck followed with a triple off the wall in right-center to score Austin from first. Hewett, who led off the frame, brought Schreck home on Texas’ fourth error. Hewett then stole second for his third inning stolen base before scoring on a triple to left field by Parker Noland.

Noland finished the day 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

Texas got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third, but Vandy starting pitcher Devin Futrell limited the damage with a double play in the bottom of the bottom after Texas loaded the bases.

TJ McKenzie hit his second double of the day in the top of the fifth to score Davis Diaz from second and extend the Dores’ lead to eight at 9-1.

Enrique Bradfield Jr. led off the sixth with a walk and stole second, his first steal of the season, and took third on a throwing error. Schreck then singled out Bradfield to make it 10-2.

Jonathan Vastine hit a two-out, bases-loaded, two-run single up the middle to extend Vandy’s lead to 10.

Futrell gave way to Bryce Cunningham after five strong frames. Futrell (1-0) allowed two runs on three hits while striking out five. Cunningham didn’t allow a hit over the last four innings and struck out six.

Until Next Time

Vanderbilt’s home opener is Tuesday at 4:30pm CT against Central Arkansas at Hawkins Field. Tuesday’s contest can be seen on SEC Network+.