Kentucky baseball (29-23, 13-17 SEC) fell short after No. 9 Vanderbilt (39-16, 19-11 SEC) took a late 5-3 lead and held on to secure the sweep.
The Wildcats came into game three after back-to-back tough losses as the Commadores won the first two games of the series on walk off home runs.
Kentucky sent its ace Ben Cleaver to the mound, and he set an early tone by sitting down the first six batters he faced in order to start the game.
Hudson Brown opened the scoring to leadoff the third with a 423-foot blast over the right-field wall.
After a strikeout, Tyler Bell launched a homer over the right-center field wall to give Kentucky a 2-0 lead.
With the homer, Bell became the first Wildcat under Nick Mingione to hit 10 home runs in a single season and Bell is now tied with Chris Gonzalez for the most homers by a freshman in Kentucky baseball history.
Cleaver retired the first two batters of the fourth to extend his streak to 11-straight before giving up a walk. However, Cleaver retired the next batter for a clean third inning of work.
The Commadores struck out James McCoy and Patrick Herrera before Carson Hansen reached second on an error by Braden Holcomb in left field.
Kyuss Gargett singled to bring home Hansen and extend the Wildcats lead to 3-0.
Cleaver responded with a three-up, three-down fourth on the mound.
The lefty gave up a leadoff single in the fifth, then struck out the next three batters in a row to end the inning.
Cleaver’s dominance came to a halt in the sixth when he loaded the bases with a walk, single and hit-by-pitch. Riley Nelson grounded out but put the Commadores on the board.
After getting an out, Cleaver walked Holcomb to reload the bases before Colin Barczi singled to bring home two runs to tie the game 3-3.
After the Wildcats went down in order in the seventh, Simon Gregersen took over for Cleaver and walked the first batter he faced. After a sacrifice bunt, Gregersen walked another batter, which ended his afternoon.
Nile Adcock came on and gave up a double to RJ Austin that scored both runners and gave Vandy the decisive 5-3 lead.
Kentucky had its worst game of the series at the plate as it only had six total baserunners in the game with five hits and one walk.
On top of the limited traffic, Vanderbilt pitching struck out 11 Wildcats in the ballgame.
The Wildcats led in every single game of the series by at least two runs but will leave Nashville without a win.
The regular season has now come to an end for Kentucky, and it will now set its sights on the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama beginning on Tuesday, May 20 where it will be the No. 13 seed.
With the loss, Kentucky will now set its sights on the postseason where it will head into the SEC Tournament as the No. 13 seed and its game will begin around 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 20.
