Kentucky cut Tennessee's lead to one run in the eighth and ninth innings, but the Wildcats' comeback bid against No. 24 Tennessee came up short in a 10-9 loss. The Wildcats trailed 7-1 going to the bottom of the seventh and then 10-6 going to the bottom of the ninth, but both times brought the go-ahead run to the plate.
Facing a 7-1 deficit, Kentucky pieced together a four-run seventh inning to get back into the game. Another run in the bottom of the eighth put a comeback victory within reach, but following back-to-back doubles by sophomore Hudson Brown and freshman third baseman Caeden Cloud, Tennessee reliever Bo Rhudy retired Owen Jenkins and Jayce Tharnish to end the threat.
But Tennessee's Levi Clark hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth – his second homer of the afternoon – off Kentucky reliever Jack Bennett to stop Kentucky's momentum and give the Vols some breathing room at 10-6. Clark drove in five runs and also doubled in the victory.
After Tennessee's runs in the top of the ninth, sophomore shortstop Tyler Bell opened Kentucky's frame with a no-doubt homer to right field to cut the lead to 10-7, and freshman Braxton Van Cleave launched a 429-foot two-run homer to trim the lead to one. Scott Campbell Jr. followed the homer with a single, but was stranded on first to end the game.
Kentucky finished the game with 15 hits as a team and was led by three hits from Bell and Van Cleave. Starting pitcher Connor Mattison provided 3.1 innings for the Wildcats. He gave up back-to-back homers to Reese Chapman and Clark in the second inning, then allowed a run in the third inning. Mattison limited the damage, however, stranding a runner on third with less than two outs. He struck out No. 3 hitter Henry Ford and got a groundout on cleanup hitter Trent Grindlinger to escape trouble.
But Mattison was replaced in the fourth inning after a one-out double and hit batter. Junior right-hander Ryan Mullan entered and hit a batter with two strikes to load the bases, then allowed a single into left field that scored a run. Senior Ira Austin entered and induced a ground ball that Kentucky couldn't quite turn quick enough for a double play, scoring a run on a fielder's choice. Leighton Harris came on and got out of the inning after a long fly ball was caught up against the wall by Tharnish to keep the score 5-1.
It looked like the Vols were going to finish off the series with a comfortable victory after two more runs scored in the seventh inning to make it 7-1, but Kentucky answered with four runs of its own in the bottom of the frame against Tennessee freshman reliever Cam Appenzeller. The rally started with Cloud getting hit by a pitch, then Jenkins doubled off the right field wall to put a pair of runners in scoring position. Tharnish hit a flare into right field to score Cloud and put runners on the corners. Bell singled up the middle to score Jenkins and put Tharnish on third, who then scored on an infield groundout by Luke Lawrence. Ethan Hindle brought in the final run of the inning on a line drive single. Van Cleave represented the tying run, but was struck out by Rhudy.
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But the Vols were able to answer Kentucky's rally with three runs in the ninth. Ford led off the inning with a double down the left field line. After a sacrifice bunt moved Ford to third, Kentucky elected to intentionally walk Chapman. That brought Clark to the plate, who deposited his second homer of the game over the wall in left-center field.
With the loss, Kentucky fell to 11-13 in SEC play. Still, it was a productive weekend with positive signs in multiple areas. Starting pitchers Ben Cleaver and Jaxon Jelkin covered 15 of the first 17 innings of the series, and the offense generated 30 runs in three games and collected at least 12 hits in each game. Kentucky has gotten production throughout its lineup over the past four SEC games.
The Wildcats return to action on Friday night in Gainesville against the Florida Gators.
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