NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb baseball team lost 7-1 to ninth-ranked Vanderbilt Tuesday evening at First Horizon Park, the home of the MiLB’s Nashville Sounds.
It was a difficult day at the office for the Bisons’ bullpen, but it didn’t begin that way.
Sophomore pitcher Connor Witzke had a dream start for Lipscomb, forcing the Commodores to go three up, three down with two strikeouts in the top of the first.
The Aurora, Illinois-born transfer from Kalamazoo Valley Community College finished with three strikeouts in 1.1 innings but owned a 5.06 ERA and gave up four runs on two hits.
It would be Lipscomb to take the first lead of the outing, though, when leadoff hitter David Coppedge scored on a sacrifice fly from designated hitter Mason Lundgrin.
“To hit a double in the first, it’s exciting,” Coppedge, a transfer from Virginia, said. “It sets a tone. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win, but it was fun.”
Lundgrin, a sophomore from Salina, Kansas, entered the game with a .307 batting average and 15 RBIs, both good for third-best on the team. He ended the day at 0-3 but earned Lipscomb’s only RBI.
Vanderbilt came right back to score two in the top of the second, taking advantage of two walks from Witzke. After Witzke hit a player by a pitch right after to load the bases, he was replaced by fellow sophomore Kaleb Kantola.
A native of Monmouth, Oregon, Kantola also struggled to close out the second frame. Kantola walked two of his three batters faced before he was also retired in the same inning.
Sophomore Patrick Williams was able to end the inning, but the score still favored the Commodores 4-1 in the middle of the second.
The Bisons couldn’t get anything going offensively the rest of the way, never finding their footing against one of the best young pitchers in college baseball.
Devin Futrell, a freshman, came into the contest with a 4-0 record and a 2.65 ERA. His fifth win of the year was perhaps his best performance, as he kept Lipscomb to just two hits and no runs after the first inning.
After Coppedge opened the game with a hit on Lipscomb’s first at-bat, the Bisons were unable to register a hit in the remainder of the contest.
“[Futrell] was good at getting us off-speed,” shortstop Caleb Ketchup said. “It was hard to adjust, and late at night, lights bright, it’s kinda hard to pick up the off-speed. When he can throw everything for a strike, it’s hard to sit one pitch.”
Meanwhile, Lipscomb’s own pitching situation was an ever-turning carousel, with five pitchers taking the mound in the first four innings alone.
Ten pitchers would go on to throw for the Purple and Gold, and the pitching-by-committee approach was mostly successful in keeping Vanderbilt off the board down the stretch.
“This is a very good team, a top contender in the SEC, and we held them to six hits,” Ketchup said. “We limited them on hits, so that’s something that we can take in [to Friday’s game at Bellarmine].”
A fourth-inning run was all Vandy could earn from the middle stretch of the game, but their defense kept them ahead 5-1.
In the eighth inning, though, the Commodores picked up another spurt of offense, scoring a pair of runs to extend their lead to 7-1.
With no response offensively, Lipscomb came up short in the final two innings and were forced to take a loss back to Green Hills.
The Bisons now drop to 12-13 on the season and will return to ASUN play this weekend with a 1-5 conference record. Vanderbilt picks up their 20th win of the season and sports a 20-4 overall record.
“In the first two [conference] weekends, we haven’t played as well as I think we can play,” Lipscomb head coach Jeff Forehand said. “Our pitching is coming on; last week, we didn’t hit very much. Any time you go into league play, you’ve just got to play good ball.”
Lipscomb also holds an 0-4 record against SEC opposition this year and a 1-6 mark against Power Five teams.
Next up for the Bisons is a weekend series against Bellarmine in Louisville, Kentucky. The series runs from April 1-3 and starts with a 1 p.m. first pitch Central time.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics