No. 2 Arkansas Completes Series Sweep of Vanderbilt in Comeback Win
No. 14 Vanderbilt’s impressive 16-0 start on its home field is firmly in the rearview mirror now after the Commodores lost Sunday’s series finale to No. 2 Arkansas.
It’s the first time this season Vanderbilt (20-8, 4-5 SEC) has been held winless in an SEC series after experience three such weekends last season. The Razorbacks took an early 2-0 lead in the third inning when Charles Davalan hit a two-run home run off of Commodores’ pitcher Connor Fennell.
The Commodores had their chance to avoid Sunday’s series finale loss. They took the lead for the first time all weekend in the bottom of the fourth inning when Colin Barczi sent a ball flying over the tall, left field wall and Vanderbilt led 3-2.
However, there was too much baseball left to be played and Arkansas, eventually, struck back. The Razorbacks exploded for five runs in the eighth inning, including Davalan’s second home run of the day and Logan Maxwell’s second home run of the series. Brent Iredale scored on a wild pitch and Nolan Souza’s two-run, two-out single to left field capped off the game’s scoring.
Fennell pitched five innings for Vanderbilt and was inline for the win when he left the game before the start of the sixth inning. He ended the game with two runs on three hits, one walk and 10 strikeouts. Alex Kanzler (3-1) suffered the loss. In 2.2 innings of work, Kanzler gave up three runs on five hits and two strikeouts. Ethan McElvain was brought in stop the bleeding in the eighth inning, but gave up two runs after just three batters faced.
The Commodores will have Monday off before hosting Western Kentucky (24-3) in Tuesday’s midweek game. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. on SECN+. Their next SEC series will take the Commodores to the Sunshine State where they’ll face the Florida Gators (19-11, 1-8 SEC).
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-8b6c726067ba8eb0b5197041f28d1b64.jpeg "Taylor Hodges")
Taylor Hodges is a staff writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI covering all-things Vanderbilt. Taylor brings more than a decade’s worth of award-winning sports writing, photography and video experience covering every level of sports — from Little League baseball to professional sports and other sports like hunting and fishing. Taylor is fueled by his lifelong passion for sports that began the same day Kirk Gibson hit his legendary World Series walk-off home run, Arkansas beat Texas in Austin and No. 4 Notre Dame beat No. 1 Miami in the Catholics vs. Convicts game.