The Wright State baseball team finally took the field for the first time in the 2021 season on Monday afternoon, playing a pair against Vanderbilt after waiting throughout the weekend due to inclement weather in the Nashville area.
 
Facing two of the better pitchers in the country on Monday, the Raiders dropped the opener 14-1 before a tough, 1-0 loss in the second game. Wright State had its chances, stranding 12 runners in the first game and five more in the nightcap.
 
The Raiders are back in action this weekend with a three-game set at Alabama. Friday's first pitch is slated for a 4 p.m. start before two more afternoon contests on Saturday and Sunday.
 
Game 1
Down 2-0 after Vanderbilt tallied a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning, the Raiders didn't get their first hit until the fourth frame, a Tyler Black double that was left stranded. After another Vanderbilt run in the fourth, Wright State had one of its best scoring chances in the top of the fifth, drawing back-to-back walks to chase Kumar Rocker from the game. After a single from Julian Greenwell loaded the bases with no outs, the Commodores induced a pair of popups to the catcher and a strike out to end the Raider threat.
 
After two Vanderbilt runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Raiders had another chance to cut into the margin in the top of the sixth, loading the bases with two outs thanks to a Commodore error and a hit batsman before Greenwell again came to the plate, this time lining out to the second baseman to end the inning. The Commodores added on in the sixth and seventh innings before Wright State found the scoreboard in the top of the eighth when Jay Luikart delivered a pinch hit single and was driven in moments later on Sammy Sass' RBI double into the left-center field gap. Vanderbilt added six runs in the bottom of the inning then left a pair of Raiders stranded in the ninth to wrap things up.
 
Black and Greenwell were the Raider starters with hits, while Luikart, Sass and Alex Neff all had pitch hit knocks. Jake Schrand took the loss on the mound, allowing seven hits and five runs, while striking out seven batters, over five innings of work to open his season.
 
Vanderbilt had five players with multiple hits, paced by Parker Noland's three hit, three RBI afternoon. Roker earned the in with eight strikeouts and one hit allowed over four innings of work.
 
Game 2
A completely different contest from the first game of the day, the nightcap was scoreless through four and a half innings, with Vanderbilt's Jack Bulger's RBI groundout in the fifth inning ultimately proving to be the difference.
 
The Raiders left five men on in the second game, one each in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings, and a pair of runners in the seventh. In that seventh, Wright State put two on with no outs thanks to back-to-back walks from Black and Zane Harris, but were unable to push a run across to end the inning. Black again walked to put a runner on in the ninth, but a pair of strikeouts ended the night.
 
Alex Alders, who singled in the fifth, and Greenwell, who doubled in the sixth, were the lone Raider hits, while the walks drawn by Black and Harris were the only other baserunners for Wright State.
 
Bradley Brehmer was saddled with the tough-luck loss, allowing six hits and the one run over four innings while striking out four. Austin Cline, who was originally scheduled to start during the series before the three-game set got paired down to Monday's doubleheader, tossed four innings of two-hit relief with six strikeouts and no walks.
 
Jayson Gonzalez had three of Vanderbilt's eight hits in the nightcap, while Jack Leiter allowed one hit with eight strikeouts over five innings to pick up the win.