Explosive 7th Inning Lifts No. 15 Vanderbilt Past St. Mary's in Game 2 in Nashville

The Vanderbilt baseball (6-1) program is nothing if not resilient. The Commodores utilized two big offensive innings to rally and knock off the St. Mary's Gaels (4-3) winning game two of the series 13-7 and keeping its 2025 home record clean.

Vanderbilt's first big inning came in the bottom of the fourth as the 'Dores trailed 4-0. The Commodores left fielder Braden Holcomb singled to open the scoring by bringing catcher Colin Barczi in to score. Jacob Humphrey singled and Jonathan Vastine walked to load the bases, bringing up superstar centerfielder RJ Austin. Austin smashed a pitch off the left field wall to clear the bases and tie the game. Austin managed three hits and a walk in his four appearances, scoring two runs to go with his three RBIs.

St. Mary's didn't relent, scoring a run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning and two more in the sixth inning after loading the bases to retake a three-run lead.

The Commodores, trailing 7-4 in the seventh inning put a nine-spot on the scoreboard to claim their first lead of the game. Vanderbilt scored eight runs with two-outs in the frame as first baseman Riley Nelson reached safely on a single to bring in the first run of the inning and again on an error to bring in the final two runs of the inning.

Commodores starting pitcher Ethan McElvain struggled in his second straight start, managing just three innings pitched, allowing four earned runs, on three hits and three walks and a hit batter. He struck out three batters before he was pulled ahead of the fourth inning. McElvain opened the third inning with two walks, allowing all four runs in the third frame.

Vanderbilt leaned on several arms to finish the job as Hudson Barton, Brennan Seiber, Jakob Schulz, England Bryan, Matthew Shorey and Miller Green all took turns on the bump. Schulz was the only reliever to get into trouble as he walked two batters and hit one, giving three free passes and allowing two runs in his short appearance. Green closed down the game with strong command, striking out three batters and allowing just a single base runner via walk in his two innings of work.

The Commodores and Gaels square up for the third game of the series on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT at Hawkins Field.