Vanderbilt 7, Arkansas 4

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) _ Not even Arkansas could cool off the hot-hitting Vanderbilt Commodores. <br/><br/>Ryan Flaherty doubled twice, Shea Robin drove in 2 runs and the Commodores captured their first Southeastern

Sunday, May 27th 2007, 7:23 pm

By: News On 6

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) _ Not even Arkansas could cool off the hot-hitting Vanderbilt Commodores.

Ryan Flaherty doubled twice, Shea Robin drove in 2 runs and the Commodores captured their first Southeastern Conference tournament title in 27 years with a 7-4 win over the Razorbacks on Sunday.

Vandy (51-11), which won four straight after losing the opener, had little trouble against an Arkansas pitching staff that had been dominant all week and also got some sparkling defense.

The tournament's top two seeds were both awarded NCAA regional sites before the game and are hoping to be among the eight national seeds announced on Monday.

Left fielder Matt Weingasner turned in two big plays late. First, he gunned down pinch-runner Matt Willard at the plate for the third out in the 8th to save a run. Then, he tripled and scored an insurance run in the 9th on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Ryan Davis.

The Razorbacks (41-19) had allowed only 2 runs in breezing through their first three tournament games. Vandy pounced on freshman starter Dallas Keuchel with a 4-run 1st _ 3 of them unearned _ and pounded out 12 hits, while turning two double plays.

Brett Jacobson pitched the final 2-1/3 innings and struck out two of three batters in the 9th. He ended it by chasing down a grounder by Ben Tschepikow and throwing him out at 1st.

Arkansas is the first team to play in the championship games of football, basketball and baseball since the league started playing a football championship game in 1992. A more dubious distinction: going 0-3 in those games, and in baseball tournament championship games.

Vandy, meanwhile, is the first No. 1 seed to win the tournament since Alabama in 1997 and the second Eastern Division team to manage that feat since 1996.

Tyler Rhoden went a career-long 6-2/3 innings in his first start to keep the Commodores ahead, allowing four runs.

Tournament MVP Pedro Alvarez scored twice. He drove in 8 runs in the tournament and homered twice.

Arkansas got a 2-run homer by Danny Hamblin, the school-record 57th of his career. Jeff Nutt also went 3-4.

The Razorbacks, who committed 3 errors, scored a run in the 1st and 2 in the 2nd to trim Vandy's lead to 4-3 on Hamblin's homer. But Vandy added 2 runs in the 7th on RBIs by Meingasner and Robin.