Jim Mashek

WESTERN KENTUCKY PLAYS HOST TO NEW MEXICO STATE THIS WEEKEND IN CRITICAL CONFERENCE USA SERIES

As Tuesday night mid-week games go, this one loomed as a big one for Western Kentucky University’s teetering baseball squad.

One year removed from the Hilltoppers’ first NCAA Tournament appearance in 16 years, Western Kentucky played host to another struggling team, Belmont University, on Tuesday before a scant, sometimes shivering crowd at WKU’s Nick Denes Field.

Both Belmont’s Dave Jarvis and WKU’s fifth-year head coach, Marc Rardin, planned to make extensive use of their bullpens, what with conference play looming in just three days and Easter Weekend in the past tense.

The Hilltoppers were playing the fifth game of an eight-game homestand, and they clearly needed some momentum heading into this weekend’s Conference USA series against visiting New Mexico State.

Western Kentucky trails eight of its 11 C-USA opponents in the league standings, with six series remaining, and the Hilltoppers were looking to recover from last week’s sobering three-game sweep, at home, against the surging Liberty University Flames.

It wasn’t a work of art, by any means, but the Hilltoppers got it done.

Western Kentucky bounced back from two deficits, the second one by three runs in the late innings, to knock off the Bruins, 9-8, while stopping the bleeding from the Liberty series. The final game was particularly disheartening, for the Tops, as Liberty erased a 5-0 deficit with a six-run ninth inning on its way to an improbable 6-5 triumph over the home team.

Belmont seemed poised to follow suit, but the Hilltoppers buckled down and put up a 4-spot in the bottom of the eighth inning, with senior right-hander Nathan Lawson completing the task at hand with a spotless inning of work in the top of the ninth.

Western Kentucky improved to 17-16 on the season, a record the Tops have plenty of time to work on, before the Conference USA Tournament, while Belmont dropped to 12-21 overall. The Bruins will resume Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend with a road trip to Illinois State.

WKU second baseman Austin Haller, one of the three returning starters from last year’s C-USA Tournament championship squad, delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the eighth inning. Haller delivered a two-run single to left-center field, off Belmont right-hander Brooks McDonough, to account for the final margin.

Haller, a third-year Hilltopper with his trademark handlebar moustache — there’s a true Californian for ya — went 2-for-4 on the night with three or four exceptional defensive plays. He also fielded a hard-hit ground ball off the bat of Belmont’s Jake Maddox, firing to WKU teammate Kyle Hayes at first base for the final out of the game.

“To come back, and score four runs in the bottom of the eighth, is big,” WKU coach Marc Rardin said. “They showed they have fight … and that’s the No. 1 thing you need to see, as a coach.

“It doesn’t matter how much skill you have, you have to have the will to win.”

Rardin used seven pitchers, with former Bowling Green High School star Dawson Hall providing two critical innings of work down the stretch. Hall endured a tough-luck inning in the top of the eighth, retiring the final Belmont batter on one of Haller’s slick defensive plays, while recording three strikeouts without a walk.

Hall (2-2) was the winning pitcher, while McDonough (1-1) took the loss for the Bruins.

Rardin is still in the process of shaping his pitching staff, something that came to light in the Liberty series. The Hilltoppers still have time to make a run in Conference USA play, and the league’s top nine teams will converge at Kennesaw State University, in Metro Atlanta, for the C-USA Tournament that coincides with the Memorial Day weekend.

“We’ve got to put some weekends together,” Rardin said. “Jake (Angier, the New Mexico State head coach) does a great job, and they always play a tremendous non-conference schedule. You can’t read too much into records, right now … We’re still trying to build a pitching staff.

“We can’t go into a weekend, depending on three or four guys … we had five walks, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch. Those are freebies.

“We’ll give the team a day off (Wednesday), but we’ll lift weights, and have study hall … On Thursday, we’ll go out, practice, and try to get better for the weekend.”

Dawson Hall and the WKU pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts, while allowing 11 hits, in a game that went 3.5 hours in dropping temperatures. WKU shortstop Reid Howard got the Hilltoppers on the board with an RBI triple, off the wall in left-center field, and erased Belmont’s leadoff man, Charlie Davis, on a relay throw to limit the Bruins to two seventh-inning runs in a game that stayed tight down the stretch.

WKU’s Kyle Hayes, Lane Arroyos and J.P. Acosta all finished the game with two hits, and junior catcher Camden Ross provided his usual toughness behind the plate in the winning effort. The victory allowed Western Kentucky to complete a two-game sweep of the Bruins this season.

Belmont’s Brady Holbrook went 4-for-5 with two RBI.

WKU’s Kiefer Tarnoki entered the game as a pinch runner in the sixth, scoring when the Tops put up their first 4-spot of the night. Tarnoki ignited the Hilltoppers’ second four-run inning, in the seventh, with a line-drive double to the left-field corner with no outs. WKU teammates Parker Coley and Tarnoki would then score on J.P. Acosta’s two-run single to center field, setting the stage for Austin Haller’s two-run single that put the Hilltoppers ahead to stay.

“These Tuesday games are opportunities to get better, to show your worth for the weekend,” Rardin said. “Tuesdays are really tryout days.”

Game One of the New Mexico State series is set for Friday night. First pitch is at 6 p.m.