Vandy Lineup Shuts Down in Late Innings Against Nebraska

Vanderbilt Baseball fell 6-4 on Saturday night to the No. 24 ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers in the Desert Invitational after the offense lost its mojo following an electric start.

RJ Austin started the scoring with a bang for Vanderbilt with a home run in the bottom of the first followed by an RBI double from Colin Barczi to set the score at 3-2 in Nebraska's favor going into the second inning. However, Vanderbilt would only scratch across two more runs in the game as the offense sputtered in the later innings.

On the opposite side of the plate, Nebraska left fielder Gabe Swansen plated all six of the Cornhuskers' runs in a career night on the offensive end. Swansen finished with 6 RBIs on the night with a pair of doubles and a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning.

Ethan McElvain drew the start for Vanderbilt and was lit up from the first inning onward. Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin pulled McElvain after 2.2 IP where he surrendered 6 hits and 4 runs on 76 pitches thrown. McElvain had the slider working throughout most at bats and was able to get 7 Ks as a result, but the offspeed pitches wouldn't bite in later at bats, and it cost Vanderbilt in the early innings.

As a team, Vanderbilt struck out 10 times and drew only 5 walks through all nine frames. So far through the Desert Invitational, the Commodores have only managed to plate 8 runs through the first two games.

The lone bright spot on the night, though, was the strength of the Vanderbilt bullpen. After McElvain was retired, the pen only surrendered a pair of runs through 6.1 IP. The trio of Alex Kranzler, Brennan Seiber and Jakob Schulz combined to strike out eight batters through their respective innings of work.

Vanderbilt fell to 1-1 win the win, while Nebraska improved to 1-1 following its opening loss to UC Irvine. Speaking of which, next up for the Commodores is UC Irvine in the team's final game out in the desert. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. tomorrow.