HOOVER, Ala. — The No. 12 seed Vanderbilt Commodores rallied from a 4-1 fifth-inning deficit to beat the No. 13 seed Kentucky Wildcats 8-5 on Tuesday afternoon at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, eliminating Kentucky and advancing the defending SEC Tournament champion into a Wednesday second-round matchup with No. 5 Florida. The official attendance was 6,748 on an 87-degree partly cloudy afternoon.
Vanderbilt improved to 33-24 overall and 14-16 in conference play. Kentucky dropped to 31-21 and 13-18 SEC, with the loss ending the Wildcats’ tournament after one game and pushing them into a tense wait for Selection Monday on May 25 — the NCAA Tournament Selection Show airs at 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
For Tim Corbin, in his 23rd season at Vanderbilt and now four years removed from the program’s 2019 national title, the win extended Vanderbilt’s recent dominance in Hoover. Corbin has won 11 of his last 13 games at the SEC Tournament. The Commodores will face Florida at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday on the SEC Network.
Brodie Barrels loves Hoover pic.twitter.com/uu2S5DdJwb
— Vanderbilt Baseball (@VandyBoys) May 19, 2026
Johnston leads off, delivers
The story of the game was the move Corbin made before first pitch: shifting third baseman Brodie Johnston to the top of the order. Johnston rewarded the change with three RBI on a 2-for-4 day, including a two-run home run to left in the eighth inning that effectively sealed the win.
“We wanted to shake things up for him, and also put him at the top where he’s done pretty good damage against right-handed pitching, and he’s pretty good with not people on as well,” Corbin said. “We just felt like it was the right move.”
Johnston’s first contribution came in the bottom of the third, an RBI single up the middle that scored Colin Barczi to put Vanderbilt on the board and cut Kentucky’s lead to 2-1.
By that point, Kentucky had already established command of the game. Tyler Bell — the projected first-round draft pick and MLB Pipeline’s No. 23 prospect — set up Kentucky’s first run by leading off the top of the first with a double to right-center. Second baseman Luke Lawrence followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 1-0.
Bell extended the lead himself in the top of the third with his seventh home run of the season, a solo blast to right field to make it 2-0.
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Right fielder Carson Hansen made it 3-1 in the top of the fourth with his fourth home run of the year, a solo shot to left. Lawrence added an RBI double to left-center in the top of the fifth, scoring Caeden Cloud to push Kentucky’s lead to 4-1.
The sixth inning
Kentucky starter Jaxon Jelkin had been excellent through five-plus innings. The Houston transfer, back from Tommy John surgery and Kentucky’s second-team All-SEC pick on the mound, sat down the first two Vanderbilt batters in the bottom of the sixth. Then the game changed in roughly seven minutes.
Ryker Waite singled up the middle to score Logan Johnstone and cut the deficit to 4-2. Rustan Rigdon followed with an RBI single up the middle that scored Tommy Goodin to make it 4-3. Barczi singled through the left side to score Waite and tie the game at 4-4. Catcher Korbin Reynolds — the freshman who has played 30 of 31 SEC games behind the plate this season for Vanderbilt — then reached on a throwing error by Cloud at third, allowing Rigdon to score and give Vanderbilt the lead at 5-4.
Four runs, all with two outs. Jelkin came out after 5.2 innings, charged with the loss (8-3) after allowing seven hits, four earned runs, and three walks across 99 pitches.
“We’ve talked about it during the course of the year how oftentimes offense can get going because of a pitcher,” Corbin said. “[Kranzler] certainly did that.”
Alex Kranzler, the right-hander who had struggled early in the season but found his form down the stretch, entered in the top of the sixth and silenced Kentucky’s offense over 4.1 innings — one hit, one earned run, five strikeouts, on 55 pitches. He picked up the win to improve to 3-3.
“There’s always adjustments, whether things are going good or bad,” Kranzler said. “I’d say the main thing is me and Browny just kept talking. And the big, I guess, difference maker was stop focusing or worrying about stuff in the past, future — just kind of be where you are and kind of just use that.”
Corbin said Kranzler’s fastball velocity has ticked up from 92-93 mph early in the year to as high as 96 over recent outings, attributing the jump less to mechanics and more to rhythm. “He’s let himself go in some ways and he’s throwing more strikes. There’s no doubt about it. His strike percentage has elevated in last three weeks.”
Johnston seals it
Vanderbilt added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth. Rigdon stole third and scored on a throwing error by Kentucky catcher Owen Jenkins to make it 6-4. Two batters later, Johnston launched a two-run home run to left field — his second of the day with RBI on it — scoring Reynolds and pushing the lead to 8-4.
Kentucky avoided the shutout-of-the-rally in the top of the ninth when Jenkins singled to right-center, scoring Will Marcy to make the final 8-5, but the comeback never materialized.
Bell finished 2-for-4 with a home run and an RBI. Lawrence went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Hansen also went 2-for-4 with a homer.
Mingione’s tournament resume case
For Nick Mingione, the 10th-year Kentucky head coach who guided the program to its first College World Series appearance in 2024, the postgame press conference became less about the loss than the program’s NCAA Tournament case. Kentucky enters Selection Monday with an RPI in the top 40 and quality wins, despite a sub-.500 SEC record.
“We beat the best teams. If you look at our resumé. In order to be considered one of the best teams, you have to beat them,” Mingione said. “There’s only three teams in the conference that beat every conference opponent on their schedule, that beat every team on their schedule — Georgia, Texas A&M and us. That’s pretty good company.”