Vanderbilt Commodores

Vanderbilt Completes Series Sweep Against Florida in 11-3 Win

It's the first time the Commodores have swept the Gators in Gainesville and moves the Commodores into the top half of the SEC standings.
Taylor Hodges|
No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores will wrap up its west coast Sunday against UConn.
No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores will wrap up its west coast Sunday against UConn. | Vanderbilt Athletics

There aren’t many things the Vanderbilt baseball program hasn’t done and that list got even shorter Sunday afternoon.

The Commodores’ 11-3 win over Florida on Sunday completed their first-ever series sweep against the Gators at Condron Ballpark.

Sunday’s win featured many of the same storylines from the first two games, with Florida issuing more free bases, great defensive plays from the Commodores and well-executed small ball tactics. The Commodores drew five walks and two hit-by-pitches to reach base freely and the batters took advantage.

Brennan Seiber ended up getting the start for Vanderbilt, but only pitched two innings and allowed just one hit and two walks. The Commodores ended up using five different pitchers after Seiber. Connor Fennell faced the most batters among the relivers, despite giving up back-to-back solo home runs to his first two batters faced. But those were the only hits he allowed and also recorded a pair of strikeouts.

The two home runs Fennell gave up came in the fifth inning that could’ve been the start of a Florida rally as the home runs closed the deficit to one run. But it would be the last runs the Gators would score. Vanderbilt added five more runs in the top of the ninth. Riley Nelson hit a one out solo home run and Brodie Johnston was walked in the next at-bat, setting up Collin Barczi to drive him in on a left field single.

The no. 9 hitter for Vanderbilt, Rustan Rigdon, capped off the scoring with a three-run home run to right centerfield, scoring Jonathan Vastine and Barczi.

The Commodores’ series sweep moves them into eighth place in the SEC, while the Gators find themselves in 15th place, ahead of only Missouri who is winless in SEC.

Vanderbilt will head back home for a midweek game against Dayton at 6 p.m. Tuesday on SECN+. The Commodores will then hit the road again for their next SEC series against No. 10 Oklahoma, starting Friday.

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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