Vanderbilt Bats Go Cold in Loss to Southern California

No. 14 Vanderbilt (9-2) baseball's bats turned ice cold in Los Angeles as they lost to Southern Cal (9-1) 3-1 in the second game of the Southern California College Baseball Classic.

Trojans starting pitcher Caden Aoki put together seven innings with 10 strikeouts only allowing one unearned run in his final inning of work to shut down the Commodore offense. Mason Edwards and John Elliot handled the bullpen work for the final two innings, striking out four more batters and allowing just a single hit.

Commodores starting pitcher Ethan McElvain only went 2.1 innings, blowing up in the third inning allowing two doubles and two walks to allow two runs and leave the game. Brennan Seiber, Sawyer Hawks and Matthew Shorey kept Vanderbilt in the game from the bullpen allowing just one run off two hits and two walks.

Vanderbilt was able to grind out a run in the seventh inning after Jayden Davis reached on a throwing error, David Mendez pinch ran and worked his way to third base and Jacob Humphrey brought him home on a ground out. The Commodores couldn't muster any more offense and instead took their second loss of the season.

The Commodores struck out 14 times and got on base with a walk and hit batter, but only managed five hits throughout the game and left six men on the base paths as the entire lineup struggled with consistency.

The Commodores are back in action on Sunday against UConn at noon to close down the Southern California College Baseball Classic.