In a display of strength, fifth-ranked Vanderbilt smacked three towering home runs and right-hander Chris McElvain mystified Hawaii for a 9-2 baseball victory.
An announced sellout of 4,405 at Les Murakami saw the Commodores win the first in this four-game series. Today’s doubleheader starts at 1:05 p.m.
McElvain, a junior from Thompson Station, Tenn., struck out 13 in seven innings, including seven in a row from the fifth to the seventh inning. In the sixth, McElvain struck out the side on 11 pitches.
McElvain walked one, induced eight groundouts, did not allow a drive to the outfield, and threw strikes on 70.7% of his pitches.
“After the game,” UH coach Rich Hill said, “we told the team, ‘If you guys want to play professional baseball, that’s what it looks like.’ It was just a firm mix of low 90s with kind of a wipeout slider. He was getting ahead of every hitter. Everybody’s 0-2. That’s what it’s supposed to look like on a Friday night in the SEC.”
McElvain entered having not allowed an earned run in his first two starts. UH scored on a bases loaded wild pitch and an RBI groundout in the third inning. After the no-out wild pitch, McElvain retired 15 in a row.
“You’re going to give up runs,” McElvain said. “It’s going to happen. At the end of the day, how can you bounce back and how can you help your team the best?”
The answers were his fastball, slider and extensive study sessions.
“Our pitching staff does really good at preparation the week before,” McElvain said. “Everybody does it, not just me. It’s every single person on this team. I think that’s reflected by how the pitching goes.”
In support of McElvain, Carter Young, Tate Kolwyck and Dominic Keegan hit home runs, and Grayson Moore pitched two scoreless innings.
“It all boils down to preparation,” McElvain said. The hitters “know what they’re looking for. They prepare really well and they come out to play.”
The Commodores wasted little time to get on the scoreboard against Tai Atkins, who started in place of usual Friday pitcher Cade Halemanu. Halemanu had a blister on his pitching hand, and his start was pushed back.
Enrique Bradford led off the game with a ground single into the hole between third and short. Bradford darted to third on Davis Diaz’s single to center, then scored on Spencer Jones’ RBI groundout.
In the second, Young pulled a 2-0 pitch over the Hawaiian Airlines sign in left. Young, a switch-hitter, is ranked as the 30th-best draft prospect. He led the Commodores with 16 home runs last year.
The Commodores broke it open with a five-run third. Young’s high chopper to third plated Diaz to make it 3-0. Javier Vaz’s bloop single to left drove in Jones with Vanderbilt’s fourth run.
Dalton Renne, the third UH pitcher, replaced Connor Harrison. Kolwyck followed with a blast over the fence in center that left fielder Scotty Scott and center fielder Cole Cabrera did not see descend.
Renne settled down after that and was charged with two earned runs in 41⁄3 innings. Renne was able to eat up innings to preserve UH’s bullpen. “I got comfortable after the first inning,” said Renne, who relied on pitches to edges of both sides of the plate.
The ’Bows made several big defensive plays. They turned three double plays — two on groundouts in the first two innings — and a creative one in the eighth. With the bases loaded, Diaz flied out to Matt Wong in right. Wong fired to catcher Dallas J Duarte as Vaz, who was running to the plate, tried to retreat to third. With Parker Noland between second and third, Duarte threw to shortstop Kyson Donahue, who then threw back to Duarte. Duarte then threw to Aaron Ujimori, who tagged out Vaz.
