For the second night in a row, Kentucky walked off the field at Vanderbilt with a crushing defeat.

The Wildcats scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning Friday to take an 8-7 lead, only to see the Commodores get a two-run homer from Jonathan Vastine -- his second of the night -- to give No. 9 Vanderbilt a 9-8 win.

Less than 24 hours earlier, the Dores were down to their last strike in the ninth inning when Braden Holcomb hit a three-run homer to give his team an 8-7 win after UK had led the entire night.

On Friday, Kentucky (29-22, 13-16 SEC) got home runs from Tyler Bell and Cole Hage in the top half of the ninth inning and Kyuss Gargett just missed blasting a third for the Cats as his double high off the tall left-field wall gave UK the lead.

Kentucky brought two-way player James McCoy into the game in hopes of recording the save. He had allowed only one run in 14 career appearances. McCoy struck out the leadoff batter, but Colin Barczi doubled before Vastine's game-winning, opposite-field homer on a 1-2 pitch.

The Cats, who are clinging to an NCAA Tournament bid, have experienced several close losses in SEC play, dropping 11 league games by a combined total of 15 runs. They are 10-12 against ranked teams and own nine Quad-1 victories.

Vanderbilt, which is in line for a national seed in the NCAA Tournament, improved to 38-16 overall and 18-11 in the SEC.

The series and regular-season play conclude on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.