LEXINGTON — Kentucky rallied with five runs in the final two innings of game one to score a 6-5 victory only to see its game two rally fall short in extra innings, 11-7, as Vanderbilt forced a doubleheader split on Sunday at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
The Wildcats move to 27-24 on the season and 7-19 in the Southeastern Conference. With five games left on the schedule, Kentucky needs three victories to hit the 30-win plateau for just the second time since 1997. Vanderbilt stands at 32-18 overall while improving to 13-14 in the league and tying for sixth place with South Carolina and Arkansas. Vanderbilt won the series two games to one. Both Sunday games were scheduled for seven innings after Saturday?s contest was rained out.
In game one, Ryan Wilkes belted a bases-loaded single to deep center to plate Billy Grace for the game-winning run. Grace had led off the inning with a single and went to second on J.P. Lowen?s single before J.B. Schmidt drew a walk to bring up Wilkes.
Lowen started Kentucky?s rally from a 4-1 deficit in the sixth inning when he laced a leadoff double. After a pair of walks loaded the bases with one out, Antone DeJesus turned on a pitch and banked it off the top of the wall in right field for a game-tying, three-run double. He later scored the go-ahead run on a fielding error by shortstop Dominic De La Osa.
Mike Baxter answered with a leadoff home run in the seventh to tie the game at 5-5 and set up Wilkes heroics.
Kentucky got on the board first in the second inning when Lowen launched the first of his three hits in the game over the left-center field wall for his third home run of the series. He finished with two runs scored and an RBI.
Brock Baber got the win for Kentucky to improve to 2-2 after entering in relief in the sixth. He worked 1 2/3 and allowed only the home run to Baxter. Aaron Tennyson went the first 5 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out one. The Wildcats improved to 6-0 in conference play when Tennyson starts.
Jeff Sues hurled 2/3 of an inning in the sixth and did not retire a batter in the seventh while picking up the loss. He was tagged for one run on three hits. Ryan Mullins started and had the shortest outing of his career ? 1 2/3 innings ? while giving up one run on three hits and walking four.
Matt Buschmann entered in the second and threw 3 2/3 innings and gave up three runs on one hit while walking four before giving way to Stephen Shao, who faced one batter and gave up the DeJesus double.
In game two, Vanderbilt took the lead 6-5 with a four-run fourth. Five straight singles off starter Andrew Albers plated the first three runs and led to Alex Feinberg?s go-ahead sacrifice fly. Baxter knocked his second homer of the day in the top of the seventh to extend the lead to two.
That?s when Kentucky looked for a little more comeback magic. Shaun Lehmann reached on an error and John Shelby singled him to third. Lowen then doubled down the line to cut the lead to 7-6. After an intentional walk and a pop out, Grace drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to deep left.
Grace?s ball was tracked down Aaron Garza deep in the corner as Garza made a game-saving back-handed grab the prevented the winning run from scoring. Again, Lowen paced the Wildcat attack with three hits and a pair of RBIs.
That paved the way for Vanderbilt?s four-run ninth. Baxter drove in the go-ahead run after a single and hit batsman. Brian Hernandez then launched a three-run home run for the final margin. It was his second shot of the game as he hit a solo bomb in the first.
Michael Wagner got the win to improve to 3-0 for the Commodores after coming on in relief of starter David Price. Wagner retired the first 10 batters he faced before Lehmann reached on the error in the seventh. Cody Crowell came on in the ninth with two runners on and retired three straight batters for his second save.
Scott Green, one of six UK pitchers in game two, took the loss and fell to 2-4. He went 2 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on two hits. Albers was tagged for the first six runs on 10 hits in three innings.
Kentucky returns to action this week with mid-week games against Tennessee Tech on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and Murray State on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The games are the final two home contests of the 2005 season for the Wildcats.
