Jim Mashek

WESTERN KENTUCKY RESUMES CONFERENCE USA PLAY AGAINST MTSU ON FRIDAY NIGHT IN MURFREESBORO

Sunday afternoons in Conference USA baseball tend to be challenging.

Whether you’re looking for the decisive victory in a three-game series tied at one win apiece, or looking to salvage a victory in your last opportunity, or, particularly in Western Kentucky University’s case, trying to complete the three-game sweep, NOTHING comes easily.

Exhibit A, the Hilltoppers’ 9-6 loss to Kennesaw State on a bright, sunny April afternoon at WKU’s Nick Denes Field.

Western Kentucky, looking to break out of the logjam in the middle of the Conference USA standings, took the field against Kennesaw State on a mission to change the narrative heading into the final three weeks of regular-season play.

The Tops had won five straight games, including two hard-fought games against the Owls from Kennesaw, Georgia, but only eight teams will qualify for the C-USA Tournament, which unfolds, coincidentally, on May 20 at Kennesaw State’s sparkling new facility, Mickey Dunn Stadium/Henssler Financial Field.

The squeeze is on.

Kennesaw never trailed in salvaging the final game of the series, collecting 11 hits — including five for extra bases — to send the Hilltoppers back into scramble mode. The Owls improved to 19-21 overall and 8-13 in Conference USA, while fourth-year coach Marc Rardin’s Tops dropped to 24-21 and 9-12, respectively.

If the season ended today, WKU would be one of the final squads to qualify for the eight-team tournament, while Kennesaw, the host school, would be on the outside looking in, along with New Mexico State (8-13 in league play), Florida International (6-16) and last-place Delaware (2-19).

“You’ve got to show up, every day,” Rardin said.

Conference USA is stronger, top to bottom, than it’s been in years, probably before the landscape changed with regular conference movement over the last decade. The Hilltoppers claimed their first C-USA championship last May, winning the league tournament in Lynchburg, Virginia, to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009.

(As the Sun Belt Conference champion.)

“This was one of those Sunday games,” Rardin said. “It’s kind of a boxing match. They stayed in the middle of the ring and got to us …”

The boxing analogy makes sense, at least in the estimation of Kennesaw outfielder/first baseman Jackson Chirello, a senior playing his final season of college baseball.

“There’s nothing scarier than a man with nothing to lose,” Chirello said. “Once we get to the tournament, anything can happen.”

And it probably will.

Western Kentucky had played well in its last road series, only to watch Missouri State climb back to win the first two games in dramatic fashion in Springfield, Missouri. The Hilltoppers found the resolve to take the third game of the Mo State series, 10-5, before knocking off Eastern Kentucky and Austin Peay State on back-to-back nights earlier in the week.

The Hilltoppers found ways to win in the first two games of the Kennesaw series, winning the opener 9-8 on Friday night before claiming an 8-6 victory on Saturday. Rardin and first-year WKU pitching coach Brett Neffendorf hoped to get three innings out of their starting pitcher on Sunday, and junior right-hander Jacob O’Day did just that, although he gave up single runs in both the first and second innings.

Kennesaw’s Trenton Lyons ripped a solo home run, to right field, to account for the Owls’ scoring in the first inning, but WKU’s Kyle Hayes followed suit in the second, sending a pitch from KSU’s Harry Cain over the wall in the right-field corner.

Things started going south for the Hilltoppers, however, in the top of the fourth.

WKU reliever Nathan Lawson gave up back-to-back doubles to KSU’s Wesley Alig and Jackson Chirello, to opposite sides of The Nick, before Chirello scored on Aaron Posey’s ground ball for the first out of the inning. Lawson retired the Owls’ slick-fielding but light-hitting shortstop, Shamaar McDuffie on a fly ball for the second out, bringing up senior outfielder Chris Cole and the top of the Kennesaw lineup.

Cole drew a walk from Lawson, and he’d score, on a first-and-third rundown play, after WKU coach Marc Rardin brought junior right-hander Ka’oulu Holt out of the Hilltoppers’ bullpen.

Western Kentucky stayed within striking distance, particularly after senior second baseman Austin Haller connected on a Nate Helman pitch for a two-run home run to the right-field corner in the bottom of the fifth.

Two innings later, however, KSU third baseman Cooper Williams teed off, on a curveball from WKU’s Holt, and the ball sailed well over the wall in left-center field, a two-run home run that extended the Owls’ lead to 7-3.

“We left a breaking ball up, and the guy hits it out,” Rardin said.

Western Kentucky kept battling, however, as junior first baseman Lane Arroyos, the team’s leading hitter, and senior catcher Camden Ross hit back-to-back home runs, with two outs, against a tiring KSU reliever Nate Helman.

But that momentum was short lived, however, as the Owls’ Chris Cole delivered a two-out bloop single to center field, in the top of the eighth, to push the WKU deficit back to four runs.

Haller scored on Arroyos’ RBI double to the right-field corner in the ninth to account for the final margin.

Now the Hilltoppers will have to regroup, and get ready for a Tuesday road trip to face Austin Peay State Univesity in Clarksville, Tennessee. They’ll resume Conference USA play this weekend, with traditional rival Middle Tennessee State, leaving for Murfreesboro on Friday morning before checking into their hotel and tangling with the Blue Raiders that night at Reese Smith Jr. Field.

MTSU (22-22 overall, 9-12 in Conference USA) is in a three-way tie, with WKU and Sam Houston State, for sixth place in the league standings.

“We’ve got to find a way to win two games down there,” WKU coach Marc Rardin said.

For the Hilltoppers, however, the margin for error seems to be thinning all the time.