Kirby Snead pitched a scoreless final 1.2 innings to seal the SEC title for Florida.
HOOVER, Ala. -- Florida took the lead in the second pitch of the first inning and never gave the lead away in the 2015 SEC Baseball tournament to defeat defending national champions Vanderbilt, 7-3.
The Gators' first batter, Harrison Bader, homered to left field on his second pitch. Four batters later, Buddy Reid scored on a Peter Alonso single to close out the opening inning.
Vanderbilt answered on a wild pitch by Eric Hanhold in the bottom of the first, but Florida increased the lead to two more in the top of the second inning. Runs came by Buddy Reid's double to left field, which let Bader cross home and off a Josh Tobias infield single, which Reid scored on. The Gators led the Commodores 4-1 by the end of the second inning.
After a brief weather delay, Florida came out in the third with a single run by Jeremy Vasquez's single to left field as JJ Schwarz got the run. Vanderbilt also scored a single run in the bottom of the third on a Rhett Wiseman single that allowed a run by Karl Ellison.
With the score at 5-2, inclement weather in the area returned rapidly at the end of third inning. The game was delayed for two hours and 14 minutes before teams returned to the field.
In the first inning back, the Gators notched two more runs on a Vasquez infield single, scoring Alonso and another on the following pitch as Mike Rivera scored on a wild pitch by Ben Bowden.
The win is Florida's seventh SEC tournament championship and first since 2011.
Florida improves to 44-16 on the year going into the NCAA regionals. Gator pitcher Danny Young took the win, improving to 4-2 in 2015. The Commodores fall to 42-18 and Ryan Johnson took the loss, moving to 5-1 on the year.
