Van Cleave's walk-off grand slam lifts Bat Cats over Vandy

by: Jeff Drummond04/18/26JDrumUK

Braxton Van Cleave strolled to the plate with two outs, the bases loaded, and the Wildcats trailing Vanderbilt by a run in the ninth inning on Friday night at Kentucky Proud Park.

His last two teammates who batted with a chance to play hero each struck out, and it was all riding on a freshman who had one hit on the season in 22 trips to the plate.

With one swing of the bat, everything changed. Van Cleave smashed a walk-off grand slam over the wall in right field to give Kentucky a 5-2 win over the Commodores in Game 1 of the weekend series and set off a wild celebration at KPP.

Here it is, the radio call from @Darren_Headrick of Braxton Van Cleave's 2-out walk-off grand slam tonight for @UKBaseball. pic.twitter.com/zKMqB7bvPz
— UK Sports Network (@UKSportsNetwork) April 18, 2026

“That’s probably the most exciting moment in my life, right there,” said the highly regarded signee from Arlington, Texas. “There’s nothing like what I just felt. I hope it happens again, though.”

It marked Van Cleave’s first hit since a double exactly two months to the day against Morehead State.

His head coach did not get to see the biggest swing of the Cats’ season in real time. Nick Mingione, who had been ejected in the fourth inning for arguing a sequence of calls, had to watch on his phone from the clubhouse.

“I learned we were three pitches behind,” the UK boss said of the broadcast. “… I was in the locker room and heard the place go crazy, and I didn’t know what happened. So I was waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, and I’m like, oh my goodness, he hit a bomb.”

BVC (@Braxton_VC) with the blast. @MylesVisionn with the shot! pic.twitter.com/h3Hs03nuIx
— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) April 18, 2026

According to Mingione, the staff had just discussed getting more at-bats for the talented freshman leading up to the game.

“Braxton, he had been taking great batting practices all week,” Mingione said. “His swing has been there, and we got together as a staff today, we literally said, hey, we’re going to play Braxton because there’s a chance he is gonna hit one out tonight. And, sure enough, what a huge hit.”

The towering blast helped Kentucky (26-10, 8-8 SEC) get off to a good start in the second half of the SEC schedule.

In order to reach Van Cleave’s heroic moment, UK ace Jaxon Jelkin had to deliver a great start on the mound. The junior right-hander allowed just two runs on six hits and a walk over eight innings. He threw 75 of his 105 pitches for strikes and struck out nine.

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“Boy, did we need him tonight,” Mingione said. “Seems like every time we need a big outing or a big pickup, there’s Jaxon… He was magnificent tonight.”

Nile Adcock (4-1) picked up the win by tossing a scoreless ninth inning.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt (22-16, 7-9) let one get away that the Commodores desperately needed to boost their postseason resume.

Connor Fennell nearly matched Jelkin’s starting performance, allowing just one run on five hits and two walks over 6.1 innings on the mound.

Tyler Baird (0-2) took the loss for Vandy, pitching the final 2.1 innings. He struck out five, but allowed three singles to Luke Lawrence, Jayce Tharnish, and Ethan Hindle in the bottom of the ninth to set up Van Cleave’s grand slam.

It was poetic justice for the Cats, who suffered back-to-back losses last season on walk-off home runs by Vanderbilt.

The blast marked UK’s first walk-off grand slam since Riley Mahan hit one to beat Alabama on April 9, 2016, at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

Up Next

The series is scheduled to resume at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday. The game time was moved from its original 2 p.m. ET start due to the threat of strong storms in Lexington.