NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After trailing by as many as four runs early on Wednesday evening, the University of Evansville baseball team saw its comeback efforts fall just short to seventh-ranked Vanderbilt as the Purple Aces dropped a 7-4 decision to the hosts at Hawkins Field.
"There are some great things to take from a game like this, but the little things really added up for us tonight," UE head coach Wes Carroll said. "We have to clean that up. We had two more errors tonight, and we have to control the things that we can control on the mound. It has put us in positions that are harder to come back from when you're playing the teams that we've played, and we'll be seeing another good opponent in Southern Miss this weekend."
With the loss, the Aces drop to 1-3 on the season, while Vanderbilt, which was playing in its home opener, improved to 3-1.
The Commodores surged ahead early, taking advantage of a second-inning error to grab the early lead, and they'd tack on three more an inning later. After UE starter Alex Weigand loaded the bases, Ethan Paul and Julian Infante grounded home a run apiece, and Will Toffey would add another when J.J. Bleday was caught stealing second.
Bleday, Jason Delay and Toffey picked up two hits apiece.
Back-to-back hits from Conner Hasecuster and Stewart Nelson led off the fifth, and Travis Tokarek hit a deep fly ball to right field to plate UE's first run. Nelson nearly added to the total moments later on Trey Hair flyout to center, but he was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Tokarek ended the day 2-for-4 at the plate, and Korbin Williams followed suit as the only other player with multiple hits.
However, the Commodores would follow up in the ensuing half-inning with a Toffey sac fly to cancel out the score.
A lead-off walk from Andrew Tanous got things going for the Aces in the sixth, and a Jimmy Day single and throwing error pushed Tanous across the plate. Kenton Crews singled up the middle to add two more and pull the Aces within one at 5-4.
Weigand (0-1) was pegged with the loss after giving up four runs (three earned) over three innings.
UE's bullpen shined down the stretch as Hunter Porterfield, Brandon Gomer and Blake Swanger combined to give up just one hit over 3.2 innings of work.
The score would stay that way into the eighth inning, and UE put two runners on to draw Vanderbilt closer Matt Ruppenthal from the bullpen. He'd strike out Brendan Krob to end the threat before sitting the Aces down in order in the ninth to pick up his first save of the season.
The Commodores added a pair of insurance in the bottom of the eighth, following up an error earlier in the frame with a Ro Coleman triple that brought home Bleday and Delay.
Maddux Conger (1-0) picked up the win, tossing 4.1 frames while allowing just one run and striking out six.
UE will return to action on Friday for the first of a three-game series at Southern Miss.
NOTES: Wednesday marked the first time this season that the Aces had failed to score nine runs … UE is 16-33 all-time against Vanderbilt, a series that dates all the way back to the 1950 season … The Aces are now 104-91-3 against the state of Tennessee and 32-63 against SEC schools … Since 1987, UE is 5-4 on Feb. 22 and 69-71 in the month of February.
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