NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Junior Noah Rabin and sophomore Luke Lawrence blasted a pair of majestic home runs, but the Illinois State baseball team dropped an 14-9 decision at Hawkins Field on Friday.
The Rabin home run brought Illinois State (5-6 overall) within 10-5 in the 7th inning, but #9 Vanderbilt (12-3 overall) scored in all but three innings to cruise to victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
An RBI single and three-run home run yielded a 4-0 Vanderbilt lead after an inning.
The Commodores added two runs in the 3rd inning before scoring twice in the 5th inning to build out an 8-0 lead.
Illinois State would break through, however, in the 6th inning with four runs including a pair of RBI singles from JT Sokolove and Daniel Pacella to trim the Commodore lead in half.
The home team would respond in the bottom of the 6th with a two-run homer to make it a six-run game, 10-4.
Then in the 7th, Rabin would hit a homerun for the third straight game, this time over the left field fence, before Luke Lawrence drove in another Redbird run to trim the lead to 10-6. One batter later, Shaydon Kubo drove in the third run of the frame for ILS, with a bloop single to centerfield, as the score read 10-7.
The Commodores responded with a four-run 7th inning of their own to take full control of the game.
The Redbirds would not quit, as Lawrence hit his first homerun of 2024 in the 9th to make it a five-run ballgame, 14-9.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- ILS left 11 runners on base while Vanderbilt stranded just five.Â
- Luke Lawrence led ILS on Friday at the plate, going 4-for-4 with 4 RBIs.
- Rabin hit his fifth home run of the season.
UP NEXTÂ Â
Illinois State and Vanderbilt will play game two of the weekend on Saturday, beginning at 1 p.m. CT from Hawkins Field. The game will be on SECN+.
For the latest updates on Illinois State Baseball, stay tuned at GoRedbirds.com, follow the Redbirds on Twitter (@RedbirdBaseball) and Instagram (isuredbirdbaseball), and like the team on Facebook (Illinois State Baseball).Â
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