No. 9 Vanderbilt Baseball Storms Back To Beat Kentucky In Game 1
Vanderbilt's Braden Holcomb hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to help the Commodores cap off a five-run comeback in an 8-7 win.
DORES WIN‼️ pic.twitter.com/9RqxdYTiWu
— Vanderbilt Baseball (@VandyBoys) May 16, 2025
Austin Nye made his first appearance in a SEC game this season, but it did not go how he would have wanted. Nye surrendered four runs on three hits and hit one batter before even getting one out, including a three-run home run to Kentucky’s James McCoy. Two batters later, Nye gave up a solo home run to Carsen Hansen that quickly put the Commodores in a 5-0 hole. Nye’s outing lasted just 0.2 innings, allowing four hits on the five runs.
Vanderbilt did not back down, however. After RJ Austin reached on a fielder’s choice single in the bottom of the third, Riley Nelson woke the Commodores offense up with a two-run home run to right field.
Kentucky got the lead back up to five in the fifth inning with an RBI single from Wildcats’ catcher Raphael Pelletier to make it 7-2.
That had to feel good for Raph!
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) May 16, 2025
T5 | UK 7, Vandy 2
📺 SECN+ pic.twitter.com/FT37SWSfMS
Vanderbilt ended up responding and tightened the game up. Mike Mancini started the bottom half of the fifth with a leadoff home run. The Commodores' bats stayed hot as they got two doubles from Rustan Rigdon and Austin and a single from Brodie Johnston that drove in two more runs and cut the deficit to two.
The Commodores threatened in the bottom of the seventh inning putting two runners on base with just one out, but could not get the key hit to complete the comeback. But in the bottom of the ninth inning with runners on first and second with two outs, Holcomb sent a two-strike pitch into the seats in left center field and gave the Commodores the come from behind victory. On top of Holcomb's heroics, Nelson led the way with three of the team’s 10 hits.
Vanderbilt will look to secure its third consecutive series win in game 2 against Kentucky Friday at 6 p.m. CT.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.