Vanderbilt Avoids Historic Loss, Rallies to beat Wright State 4-3

Since the current NCAA Baseball Tournament format was instituted in 1999, the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament has never lost a regional-opening game.

Wright State nearly ended that streak, but a questionable pitching change by the Raiders with their starting pitcher throwing a no-hitter and the Commodores avoided a history-making loss in a 4-3 win Friday night.

Warren Hartzell entered the game to start the seventh inning and gave up a solo home run to Brodie Johnston in his first batter faced, making the score 3-1. Hartzell appeared to find his groove, holding the next four batters hitless.

But then Mike Mancini hit his fourth home run of the season in the eighth inning and Rustan Rigdon hit a single to centerfield in the following at-bat. RJ Austin reached on a fielder’s choice in the next at-bat, bringing Riley Nelson to the plate for the game’s biggest moment.

Nelson blasted a 429-foot shot to right field that initially called foul, but the call was changed in a umpire meeting without a review. The Raiders, unsurprisingly, called for a review and the home run wasn’t overturned.

That gave Vanderbilt a 4-3 lead and was all the Commodores needed.

Sawyer Hawks picked up his eighth save of the season, entering the game in the ninth inning and striking out all three batters faced to end the game with the Commodores on top, 4-3.

JD Thompson got the start on the mound and quickly found himself and Vanderbilt in negative-run deficit. Thompson gave up a four-pitch leadoff walk and then gave up a RBI double on the first pitch of the next at-bat.

The Raiders added to that lead with a Conlan Daniel solo home run in the second inning and then again with leadoff home run by Boston Smith in the fourth inning. That would also be the last run Thompson would allow, ending the game with three runs on five hits, a walk and 12 strikeouts in eight innings of work.

Vanderbilt remains in the winners’ bracket of the Nashville NCAA Regional and will face Louisville at 8 p.m. Saturday. It’ll be a rematch of a previous game this season that saw the Commodores lose their second midweek game of the season, 5-4.

The Raiders, despite their valiant effort, will face East Tennessee State earlier Saturday at 2 p.m. ETSU lost to Louisville 8-3 in the first regional game Friday.

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