Vanderbilt Baseball Loses To Florida, Faces Elimination Against Alabama

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Photo: Courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics

After beating Auburn 6-4 on Wednesday night (May 24), Vanderbilt fell 6-3 to top-seeded Florida in the third round of the 2023 SEC Tournament yesterday (May 25), and will face Alabama in an elimination game tonight (May 26).

The Commodores and Gators were locked in a 2-2 tie until Florida jumped ahead with a grand slam in the seventh inning.

Enrique Bradfield Jr. roped the first pitch of the game to the wall in left and turned on the jets to reach third for a leadoff triple. Davis Diaz grounded out to bring Bradfield home and put Vandy up 1-0 in the first.

Florida loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but Hunter Owen, making his first appearance since May 5, got a strikeout to end the frame without a run coming in.

The Gators tied the game on a solo homer in the bottom of the second and pulled ahead 2-1 with a second solo shot in the home half of the fourth.

Jonathan Vastine led the top of the fifth with a single to center. Vastine moved to second and third on a pair of groundouts before Diaz picked up his second RBI with a single through the left side with two outs, tying the game at 2-2.

Florida jumped ahead with a two-out grand slam off the bat of BT Riopelle in the bottom of the seventh to take a 6-2 lead into the eighth.

Vastine pulled Vandy closer with a solo homer in the top of the eighth, his fourth home run on the season.

Vanderbilt’s elimination game against Alabama will start approximately 30 minutes after LSU and Texas A&M face off at 3 p.m. CT. Both of tonight’s elimination games will air on SEC Network.

Steven Boero
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