The Lipscomb baseball team fell to Vanderbilt 9-1 at the NCAA regional game at Hawkins Field Friday night.
Vanderbilt spread out its scoring in the second, fifth, sixth and seventh innings. The Commodores started the scoring with two runs in the second inning on a two-run homer by left fielder Jeren Kendall.
Vanderbilt’s big inning came in the sixth when it scored a total of five runs on three singles and a double.
“We held with Vanderbilt the first few innings,” Lipscomb coach Jeff Forehand said. “We just gave them too many freebies.”
The only run for the Bisons came from junior redshirt Adam Lee.
“I saw that [Vandy starter Carson Fulmer] threw a slider on a three-two pitch,” Lee said. “I put a good swing on it, which led to a base hit.”
Lee’s RBI was Fulmer’s first run surrendered in 27 and 2/3 innings at home. The last one was on March 14 against Arkansas.
Fulmer, who is considered to be a first-round draft pick by many experts, pitched seven innings and had 11 strike outs.
“We knew what he [Fulmer] was going to bring,” Forehand said. “He was using the breaking ball effectively and threw it short, which really messed with our batters.
“It is hard to prepare for a guy that throws a 95-mile-an-hour fastball and the next pitch is a 79-mile-an-hour breaking ball at your waist.”
Forehand said he hopes the bats for Lipscomb will ignite its offense Saturday. Lipscomb will take on Radford on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the losers’ bracket.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics