Game 1 of the College World Series didn’t get off to a great start for the Vanderbilt Commodores. Ace Jack Leiter gave up a home run to Kamren James.

That gave the Mississippi State Bulldogs a 1-0 lead, as you can see below:

But, that lead didn’t last long. The Commodores came roaring back in the bottom of the first inning, scoring 7 total runs in the frame.

That was highlighted by a 3-run blast by Jayson Gonzalez:

From that point on, only 1 run was scored by each team as Vanderbilt cruised to an 8-2 victory to take the all-important 1-0 lead in the final series.

After that one bad pitch in the first inning, Leiter settled down, recording 8 strikeouts in his dominant performance:

Leiter continues to rack up the wins in clutch situations for his squad. But, the hitters carried the Commodores on Monday night. We’ll see if that hot hitting continues moving forward.

Vanderbilt is now 1 win away from winning its third title since 2014. However, it’s likely that Kumar Rocker won’t be able to pitch until Game 3 after throwing earlier this week.

There’s still hope for the Bulldogs, so we’ll see if their bats can come alive a bit more in Game 2 tomorrow night.