Vanderbilt baseball bounced back after getting swept at home by Arkansas a week ago by sweeping Florida in Gainesville for the first time in program history.
The Commodores (24-8, 7-5 SEC) won 6-0 on Friday, 3-2 on Saturday and 11-3 on Sunday, while Florida (20-14, 1-11) sees its postseason hopes in grave danger. Vanderbilt and Florida have the two longest active NCAA tournament streaks in Division I at 18 and 16, respectively.
With the sweep, the Commodores have already exceeded the three SEC road wins they they picked up last season.
Here's what we learned:
Jonathan Vastine is heating up
When he came back for his senior season, Jonathan Vastine was expected to be a key piece for Vanderbilt both offensively and defensively, but he got off to a slow start in 2025.
Back in his home state for the weekend, Vastine was the Commodores' top overall offensive performer as he recorded six hits across the three games − including four in Sunday's series finale. His solo home run Saturday provided one of Vanderbilt's three runs.
The weekend increased Vastine's batting average during SEC play to .385 and his overall batting average to .289.
Freshman Brodie Johnston, who has been in a brutal slump the past few weeks, did not record any hits during the series but he showed positive signs Sunday by drawing two walks and a hit-by-pitch. He came around to score all three times he was on base.
Sawyer Hawks and Alex Kranzler are weapons out of the bullpen
In a weekend in which runs were hard to come by, Vanderbilt needed a lot out of its bullpen. That bullpen delivered.
Sawyer Hawks finished off the last four innings of Friday's game by not allowing a run or walk and striking out six. He lowered his season ERA to 1.33 and picked up his third save.
Alex Kranzler took the mound Saturday after throwing two innings in Tuesday's walk-off win over Western Kentucky. He threw 2⅔ innings, and though he allowed what was at the time the tying run, he ultimately got his fifth win of the season when Vanderbilt took the lead in the ninth inning.
Connor Fennell, who had previously been the team's Sunday starter, instead closed out Saturday's game and picked up the save. His outing Sunday was less effective as he allowed two home runs in two innings of work.
With Hawks, Kranzler and Miller Green all unavailable Sunday, the Commodores used six pitchers to finish the series, including Fennell along with Brennan Seiber, Matthew Shorey, Luke Guth, Levi Huesman and Tommy O'Rourke.
Starters need to go deeper into games
While neither JD Thompson nor Cody Bowker were bad in their starts, neither completed five innings. Thompson went 4⅔ scoreless Friday, giving up four hits and three walks with two strikeouts. Bowker also pitched 4⅔ innings, allowing one run on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts.
Although they ...
