Pitching collapse: Commodores run-ruled by Kentucky on Friday
Five Vanderbilt pitchers combined to allow 27 base runners as Kentucky run-ruled the Commodores, 17-7, at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington, Ky., on Friday night.
Vanderbilt's Carter Holton, Greyson Carter, Ryan Ginther, Sam Hliboki and Levi Heusman combined to allow 12 hits, seven walks and eight hit batsmen while recording just 18 outs and needing 181 pitches to complete six innings.
Two of those hits were home runs, those coming from Ryan Waldschmidt and Emilien Pitre in the Wildcats' first two plate appearances. Those were part of five runs (all earned) charged to Holton, who pitched just a third of an inning and left as his velocity declined.
Vanderbilt out-hit Kentucky, 14-12, and that included home runs by Calvin Hewett and Davis Diaz.
The Wildcats (22-7 Southeastern Conference) clinched at least a share of the league's regular-season title.
Vanderbilt has now given up nine runs or more in its last eight SEC road games. The Commodores have allowed at least 10 runs in nine of their 14 conference road games, and have been run-ruled in four of those contests.
The Commodores dropped to 12-17 in the SEC and 34-20 overall with an RPI in the low-30s as of Friday night, according to WarrenNolan.com, putting in jeopardy the nation's longest consecutive NCAA tournament winning streak, which dates back to 2005.
Diaz's blast gave Vanderbilt a brief 2-0 lead and Carter had a chance to get the Commodores out of the first down just a run. Instead, he allowed a single to Nolan McCarthy that scored a run and a fielder's choice ground-out to James McCoy for the inning's fifth score.
Vanderbilt pulled within a run in the seventh on Hewett's two-run homer. But Waldschmidt--who reached base five times on Friday after doing so four times on Thursday--led off the bottom of the inning with a double and later scored.
Kentucky then scored seven unanswered runs to put the game away as Hliboki allowed seven runs in just an inning and a third.
The teams play the final game of the series on Saturday at 11 a.m. Central.
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