Junior Chad Edwards took the loss on the mound but held the Commodores to just two runs through the sixth inning. Edwards allowed two runs on three hits in 5.2 innings of work.

Middle Tennessee used four pitchers in relief who combined for 2.1 innings of work allowing four runs on six hits.

"It was a really good ball game until the latter innings. Cotham lived up to his billing and Chad matched up with him well. He got the ball up on the solo home run but 2-0 was very manageable and we executed well defensively. In the dugout, it felt like we were getting shutout by five or six runs but it was just two so Chad did a good job of keeping it close," head coach Steve Peterson said.

The Blue Raiders had four hits on the day with senior Rawley Bishop, juniors Stuart Meinhart and Blake McDade and sophomore Tyler Burnett each had one hit on the day. Bishop's hit was a double and the only extra base hit on the day for Middle Tennessee.

"I am a purist when it comes to baseball and good pitching will beat good hitting any day of the week. We had a good inning against Minor because he didn't throw well the first inning but once he settled down we had difficulties. I don't think its just my hitters their pitching has been able to do that throughout the season. They were just too much for us and had the upper hand," Peterson said.

Vanderbilt had just four hits headed into the eighth inning but scored four runs on five hits in that inning to break the game open. The Commodores had nine hits on the day led by Aaron Westlake who went 2 for 4 with an RBI and scored two runs.

Westlake put the first run and hit on the board for the Commodores with his solo home run to right field in the second.

Vanderbilt added another run after a sacrifice fly to right field by Liddle scored a runner from third making it 2-0 in the sixth.

In the eighth inning, White hit a two-run shot to right field adding two more runs to the Vanderbilt total. Then a single by Giobbi added another run to the board extending the lead to five, 5-0. Vanderbilt ended the inning scoring four runs on five hits to take a 6-0 lead.

Middle Tennessee ends the 2009 season with a 44-18 record, the best in school history, and with both the Sun Belt regular season and tournament championships under its belt. The Blue Raiders also broke a number of single-season records including wins, double plays, runs, home runs and doubles to name a few while individual players also broke a number of single-season and career records during the campaign.

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