Jim Mashek

WKU INFIELDER AUSTIN HALLER WIELDING A HOT BAT; GAVIN PERRY SHINES AGAIN IN SATURDAY’s GAME

Marc Rardin, Western Kentucky University’s fourth-year head baseball coach, met with his squad a little longer than normal on Sunday afternoon.

The Hilltoppers mounted a comeback bid in the late innings, but New Mexico State held on to claim a 10-7 victory over Rardin’s squad, salvaging the final game of a critical three-game series.

Now, the Tops gotta hit the road.

Western Kentucky (19-17 overall, 6-9 in Conference USA) will travel to Louisville on Tuesday, with a matchup against the tradition-rich Louisville Cardinals at cozy Jim Patterson Stadium. Rardin will be saving his front-line pitching for the weekend series at Missouri State, however, because he’s far more concerned about conference play with a month and change before the C-USA Tournament starting May 20 in Jacksonville, Alabama.

(The home of the Conference USA leading Jax State Gamecocks, who are struttin’ their stuff with a 13-2 league record, just one game in front of Missouri State, and two games ahead of Liberty University, which swept the Tops in a three-game series earlier this month at WKU’s Nick Denes Field.)

“It seems like we’re always at Square One,” Rardin told WKU Radio man Jim Pickens after New Mexico State turned back the Hilltoppers’ late challenge on Sunday. “I’m not too worried about Louisville, but we have a challenging series at MIssouri State next weekend …”

Last week, Rardin said the Hilltoppers are still “trying to build a pitching staff,” and the squad is in a bit of a transition on that front, as Brett Neffendorf has succeeded Dillon Napoleon as WKU’s pitching coach.

(Napoleon is now in that same role, at the University of Illinois.)

Rardin, 55, has paid plenty of dues in his coaching career, starting with his first two gigs at Bluefield College, in Virginia, and Baylor. He won three NJCAA national championships during a 21-year run at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, before succeeding John Pawlowski for the 2023 season.

It was Western Kentucky’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009, when the Hilltoppers forced a winner-take-all game — at Ole Miss, as fate would have it — before future MLB left-hander Drew Pomeranz and the Rebels advanced with a 4-1 victory at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field.

Game Three of the New Mexico State series was a struggle from the outset, as the Aggies chased WKU’s starting pitcher, sophomore left-hander Zach Serup, with no outs and a base runner at first in the top of the third inning. New Mexico State, a contact hitting team, collected 13 hits against five WKU pitchers before the Hilltoppers pulled close with a four-run eighth inning.

“Man, they had us, from the first pitch,” Rardin said when it was over. “You’ve got to be able to handle success, as well as failure … (New Mexico State) came out, in survival mode, and they took it to us …

“First pitch, a double (from NMSU leadoff man Steve Solorzano), and they were on us … This is the third day … your pitching, your pitching staff … you’ve gotta handle success, after two wins.”

Senior right-hander Gavin Perry turned in his third straight strong performance on Saturday, guiding the Hilltoppers to a decisive 9-4 victory over the Aggies. On Friday night, WKU pitchers Aaron Robertson and Mick Uebelhor shackled New Mexico State in the opening game of the series, combining for 14 strikeouts in an impressive 7-3 triumph.

The Hilltoppers have had to overcome their share of misfortune, too. Junior infielder Lane Arroyos, the Tops’ leading hitter, has been sidelined by a finger injury, although he returned as a pinch hitter in Sunday’s game, before going 2-for-2 with a run scored and two RBI.

WKU shortstop Reid Howard, one of the three returning starters from last year’s 46-14 squad, sustained a laceration on his hand while backing up teammate J.P. Acosta at third base. Howard has been used primarily in the leadoff role, offensively, but he’s given way to another one of the Hilltoppers’ mainstays on that front.

Second baseman Austin Haller, a senior from La Mirada, California, had six hits — two of them for extra bases — in the New Mexico State series. Senior catcher Camden Ross, who usually moves to DH for the second game of the Tops’ C-USA series, has been a stabilizing force, and Hayden Robbins, a transfer from Morehead State, has been a valuable addition in the outfield.

It was New Mexico State’s second victory in 15 road games, but it should be noted that the Aggies’ non-conference schedule includes the likes of top-flight programs such as Baylor, Arizona and Arizona State.

“We hit a little rough patch, with the Liberty series, but I think we’re starting to come around,” Haller said after Saturday’s game.

First pitch for Tuesday evening’s game at Louisville is set for 5 p.m. CDT.