For the second straight night, No. 9 Vanderbilt beat Kentucky in heartbreaking fashion earlier tonight in Nashville.
Vandy smacked a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to beat the Wildcats 9-8 tonight, just minutes after Kentucky took an 8-7 lead in the top of the inning.
Kentucky now is 29-22 overall and 13-16 in the Southeastern Conference. The Cats are likely in a good position for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, but it’s certainly not a lock if they get swept by the Commodores.
Here is a recap from UK Athletics:
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NASHVILLE – For the second straight night and third consecutive game overall at Hawkins Field, Kentucky was walked off by Vanderbilt, this time 9-8 after a rousing ninth-inning rally that saw the Wildcats take another lead into the bottom of the ninth.
Jonathan Vastine hit a two-run opposite field home run, his second opposite field shot of the night, to stun the Wildcats. His shot came after Tyler Bell and Cole Hage hit solo home runs to tie the game in the top half of the inning before Kyuss Gargett gave the Cats the lead with a double high off the Green Monster-like left field wall.
UK brought on James McCoy, who had only allowed a run one time in 14 career appearances, and saw him strike out the leadoff batter before Colin Barczi slapped a double. Vastine then guided a high fastball out to left on a 1-2 count, sending the Commodores into delirium.
UK now is 29-22 overall, 13-16 in the Southeastern Conference and has 11 losses in conference play by a total of 15 runs.
NOTES
Kentucky is 29-22 (13-16 SEC) on the season.
UK has 14 losses this season by 1 or 2 runs.
11 of UK’s SEC losses have come by a total of 15 runs.
UK has held a lead in 26 of 29 SEC games.
UK now is 10-12 vs. ranked teams and owns nine Quad 1 victories.
UK Coach Nick Mingione is in his ninth season at the helm and now owns a 291-188 career record.
Mingione is the second-winningest coach in school history.
UK is 52-52 in the month of May under Coach Mingione.
Mingione now is 7-17 vs. Vanderbilt
INF Tyler Bell singled on the first pitch of the game to extend his reached base safely to 23 consecutive games.
He has reached in 50 of 51 career games.
He was 4-of-5 with three runs and a solo home run.
The four hits give him 65 on the season. 6th on UK’s freshman single-season chart.
The three runs give him 47 on the season, 3rd on the freshman list.
His 9th home run puts him a tie for 2nd with Austin Cousino (2012) and John Wilson (1998).
He has 17 multi-hit games on the season.
UT James McCoy went 1-for-2 with three runs, two RBI and three walks.
He has reached base in seven of 10 plate appearances in the series.
OF Cole Hage went 2-of-4 with a walk and game-tying ninth-inning home run.
IF Kyuss Gargett had two hits, including the go-ahead RBI double in the ninth inning.
ON DECK
UK faces No. 9 Vanderbilt in the regular season finale on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET/2 CT on SECN+. Radio will air on the UK Sports Network.
Follow along with the Cats on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and on the web at UKathletics.com.
The post Vanderbilt beats Kentucky with walk-off home run for second straight night first appeared on Nation of Blue.