Buehler brilliant in ‘Dores win over Irvine

Once Vanderbilt’s Walker Buehler entered Monday’s College World Series game against UC Irvine, everything turned around for the Commodores.

Buehler was outstanding in relief, tossing 5 1/3 hitless innings and Vanderbilt came from behind to defeat UC Irvine 6-4 in a winner’s bracket game at TD Ameritrade Park.

The Nashville, Tennessee school, appearing in its second World Series, is three victories from its first-ever national championship. While Vanderbilt (No. 13 in RPI in the NCAA’s most-recent rankings) gets to rest until Friday, Irvine will try to avoid elimination when it plays Texas Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Before the Commodores grabbed a one-run lead in the middle innings they handed the ball to Buehler in the fourth and the sophomore began an outstanding World Series debut.

He stranded a pair of runners in the fourth by getting Chris Rabago to fly out harmlessly to right. That started a stretch of nine consecutive batters retired by the 6-1, 160-pound Lexington, Kentucky native, who walked Rabago with two outs in the seventh for his first surrendered baserunner. Irvine allowed a walk and hit a batter in the eighth, but got the last of his seven strikeouts to quell that threat, then worked a perfect ninth.

In the top of the fifth, Vanderbilt turned a two-run deficit into a lead it would hold for the remainder of the night.

Dansby Swanson, a Marietta High School product who reached base in five of his six plate appearances, opened with the first of his two doubles and Bryan Reynolds reached on an infield single. Vince Conde’s ground out scored Swanson to make it a one-run game and Zander Wiel followed with the tying double. Irvine starter and losing pitcher Elliot Surrey faced his final two batters - a walk to Xavier Turner, then he hit Rhett Wiseman with a pitch - and Evan Brock served up John Norwood’s sacrifice fly that put the Commodores up 5-4.

A two-out rally in the seventh made it a 6-4 game when Wiseman doubled and Norwood followed with a single off Brock.

Irvine, also appearing in its second World Series and first since 2007, batted around in the second and scored four times to grab the lead. Facing Tyler Beede, who earlier this month was taken by the San Francisco Giants with the 14th overall pick in the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft, the Anteaters got a run-scoring single from Kris Paulino, a squeeze bunt by Adam Alcantara that led to a run and Taylor Sparks, a second-round selection by the Cincinnati Reds, made it 4-2 with a two-run single.

It was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.


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