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Vanderbilt

Braden Holcomb walk-off home run lifts Vanderbilt past Alabama

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels05/04/25ChandlerVessels

Vanderbilt slugger Braden Holcomb stepped to the plate with the game tied in the bottom of the ninth inning against Alabama on Sunday. With one runner on, he connected on a pitch and sent it sailing through the air to deep center field.

The further it traveled, the more apparent it became that this was going out of the park. The Alabama outfielders lept haplessly in a last-effort attempt to save it, but it flew over their heads and the fence to secure a 9-7 win for the Commodores.

The home run was the sixth of the season for Holcomb, setting a new career high. Overall he has 12 homers in three seasons in Nashville.

Vanderbilt found itself down 7-2 entering the bottom of the eighth inning but would begin mustering an incredible comeback then. The Commodores scored three runs in the eighth off of a pair of home runs from none other than Holcomb and Colin Barczi.

That made it a 7-5 Crimson Tide lead entering the ninth. After Vanderbilt held Alabama scoreless in the top of the inning, the Commodores had three outs left to play with to at least tie the game.

They got two runners on immediately after a single and a hit by pitch, but a pair of ground outs followed, one of which was a sacrifice bunt advancing the runners to second and third base. Brodie Johnston then stepped up to the plate and delivered the play of the game to that point, getting a two-RBI double.

That gave Vanderbilt the tie that it needed to at least extend the game to extra innings. But the Commodores still had a chance to win and Holcomb knew that when he stepped up immediately following Johnston. He ensured there would be no need for extras to send both himself and Johnston across home plate and end the game.

Vanderbilt also won Game 1 on Friday, meaning that it also won the series with Saturday’s victory. The Commodores improved to 34-14 (14-10 SEC) on the season and is tied for fifth place with in-state rival Tennessee in the conference standings. Vanderbilt has a series with the Vols coming up next week and moving up in theee standings before the SEC Tournament should surely serve as motivation.