Vanderbilt stays alive, takes out Stony Brook

TEMPE, Ariz. — Survive and advance is a motto generally reserved for March Madness but it's proving equally true for the 21st ranked-Vanderbilt baseball team.

VU did just that Saturday afternoon — survive and advance — riding a solid outing from sophomore lefty Mike Minor and a resurgent offense to a 9-4 victory over Stony Brook in an elimination game of the NCAA Tournament's Tempe Regional at Packard Stadium.

"The game was predicated on the start by Mike Minor going deep in the ballgame like that," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "It starts and ends with him."

Minor (7-3) allowed four runs — two earned — on seven hits over eight innings with a walk and five strikeouts for the Commodores (41-21), who will face Oklahoma on Sunday at 3 p.m. in an elimination game.

Vanderbilt opened regional play Friday with an 8-5 loss to the Sooners.

"This has to do with having an older ball club," VU first baseman Andrew Giobbi said. "We don't group games together. We go more pitch to pitch and face each challenge as it comes."

Giobbi was 4-for-4 with three RBIs, Pedro Alvarez was 3-for-5 with a triple and an RBI and Steven Liddle was went 3-for-5 with a double, triple and two RBIs. Vanderbilt had 16 hits against four Stony Brook pitchers and drew another six walks.

"The guys were a little more aggressive," Corbin said. "The mistakes that were made, we hit."

The Commodores wasted little time against Stony Brook right-hander Gary Novakowski (7-5).

Alvarez hit a one-out triple off the left-center field fence in the first and scored on a Ryan Flaherty triple into the right-field corner.

"We hit the ball better the other way and guys weren't pulling off the ball today like yesterday," Liddle said.

Vandy's offense kept clicking in the second - at least until a promising rally was cut short by a triple play.

Alex Feinberg walked and Liddle singled. Giobbi lined a single to center, scoring Feinberg, and went to second as center fielder Brian Witkowski threw late to third. Shea Robin reached on a grounder to deep short to score Liddle for a 3-0 lead, but Giobbi was forced to stay at second base with the play in front of him.

Jonathan White tried to lay down a sacrifice but popped up the bunt attempt with the runners in motion. Novakowski made a lunging grab for the first out, threw to Chad Marshall covering first for the second and Marshall rifled the ball to Keith Fier on the second-base bag to end the inning.

"I knew he was going to bunt because he squared around," Novakowski said. "I knew I had to make a play and I dove for it."

Stony Brook (34-26) had a fifth-inning rally ended in similar fashion. With runners on first and third, Justin Echevarria popped up a bunt to Minor, who threw to Alvarez for the inning-ending double play.

Echevarria had fared better in the third inning when his sacrifice fly scored Michael Tansey for the Sea Wolves' only run.

After four quiet innings, Vanderbilt's offense picked up steam in the sixth. VU scored three in the sixth, the last two coming on consecutive RBI singles by Macias and Alvarez, and added another three on the seventh - the big blow coming on Liddle's two-run double to right.

Minor tired in the seventh and the Seawolves took advantage, scoring three runs on a walk, three straight hits and a two-run error by Alvarez. But Minor battled back to leave the bases loaded then retired the side in order in the eighth before giving the ball to Chase Reid in the ninth.

"I knew I had to focus a bit more," Minor said. "It was a long ball game, I threw a lot of pitches and the sun was making me tired. But I found another gear."

Tempe Regional schedule

Friday

Oklahoma 8, Vanderbilt 5

Arizona State 9, Stony Brook 7

Saturday

Vanderbilt 9, Stony Brook 4

Arizona State 15, Oklahoma 3

Sunday

3 p.m. – Vanderbilt vs. Oklahoma

8 p.m. – Winner of Game 5 vs. Arizona State

Monday (if necessary)

8 p.m. – Repeat of Game 6