Jim Mashek

WESTERN TAKES 16-9 RECORD INTO TUESDAY’s GAME WITH No. 22 UK

First-year Western Kentucky University baseball coach Marc Rardin was a little under the weather on Sunday afternoon, so he told reporters on hand he’d have to get moving quickly.

Then he took his sweet time putting the Hilltoppers’ steely 5-2 victory over visiting Louisiana Tech with an interesting perspective.

Simply put, the Tops had to have it.

“You can’t get swept,” Rardin said with a self-assured grin. “(The victory) was big, in so many ways.”

Rardin could count them, given the opportunity, but it was obvious after Louisiana Tech swept a doubleheader at Nick Denes Field on Saturday, winning both games by two runs or less.

In the first game, Louisiana Tech used a three-run home run from Dalton Davis in the third inning, and Ethan Bates’ inside-the-park in the top of the seventh to knock off the Hilltoppers 5-3. Then, in the nightcap, the Bulldogs turned back WKU’s late rally to slip past Rardin’s squad 3-2.

Western is now 5-6 in games decided by two runs or less, a telling statistic if there ever was one.

But the Hilltoppers never trailed in salvaging Sunday’s Conference USA series finale, using a brilliant effort from senior starting pitcher Devyn Terbrak to keep the Bulldogs at bay.

Terbrak, a left-hander from Perryville, Missouri, worked eight-plus innings before yielding to senior reliever C.J. Weins in the top of the ninth. Weins inherited a base runner in Tech’s Logan McLeod, who led off the inning with a single to left field, but he induced a double-play ball from Dalton Davis before striking out George Corona to end the game.

“Devyn was at 85 pitches. We were going to see him start the ninth (inning),” Rardin said. “He was deserving of that kind of applause, that kind of ovation, coming off the field. C.J. was huge.

“We still left too many guys on base.”

That’s the big-picture approach Rardin is taking in his first season in Bowling Green.

“We’re just going with ‘(winning) culture, culture, culture.’ It’s just right there,” Rardin said. “Everybody sees it.”

The Hilltoppers are now 16-9 overall and 2-4 in Conference USA. Louisiana Tech, the preseason C-USA favorite, dropped to 12-12 and 3-2, respectively, but Western has an unusual opportunity on Tuesday evening. The Tops will play host to the No. 22 Kentucky Wildcats, who are 21-3 overall and 5-1 in the prestigious Southeastern Conference.

Kentucky had put together a 17-game winning streak before losing its SEC series finale against the University of Alabama, a 4-3 defeat to the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“They’re in the Top 25. They’re doing a great job,” Rardin said.

Western needed to stop the bleeding, however, to get in the right frame of mind going into Tuesday’s tilt with the Wildcats. Terbrak did exactly that, scattering six hits over his eight-plus innings with just one walk and two strikeouts. Terbrak improved to 3-1 on the season with the victory.

Terbrak endured the 2022 season under former WKU coach John Pawloski, when the Hilltoppers finished a dismal 18-36 overall and 7-23 in Conference USA. Western Kentucky AD Todd Stewart made a big splash when the Hilltoppers hired Rardin from the junior college ranks in Iowa, and Rardin came to town with big plans for the future.

After all, he won three NJCAA national championships during his successful 20-year run at Iowa Western in Council Bluffs, Iowa, taking the Reivers to the NJCAA World Series 12 times.

His first order of business was establishing a winning culture at WKU, which hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2009. (Full disclosure: I covered that regional tournament at Ole Miss for the Biloxi-Gulfport newspaper; Western forced a winner-take-all game with a 10-9 victory over the Rebels but came up short, 4-1, against future MLB left-hander Drew Pomeranz, a first-round draft pick.)

Devyn Terbrak and WKU senior second baseman Tristan Garcia have seen the difference since Rardin’s arrival.

“I feel the vibe, in the dugout. Everyone stayed locked in, the entire game,” Terbrak said. “It’s a complete 180 (from the previous season).”

Garcia played at Louisville’s Male High School and HBCU Alcorn State (Missisissippi) before transferring to WKU, and he’s seen the difference, too.

“We were down 2-0 in the series,” Garcia said. “Coach (Rardin) preaches the will, to fight … You can see the energy, in the dugout.”

WKU shortstop Drew Reckart gave the Hilltoppers immediate energy in Sunday’s game. He delivered a two-run home run to left field, off La Tech starter Greg Martinez, before the Bulldogs tied the game at 2 on catcher George Corona’s two-run homer to left-center field in the fourth.

The Hilltoppers didn’t give in, of course, and scratched out two runs of their own in the bottom half.

Garcia drove in a run with an infield single and Kirk Liebert added a run-scoring single, a line drive to left field, to give the Tops a 4-2 lead.

Then, in the bottom of the eighth, WKU leadoff man Ty Crittenberger delivered a home run to left field, a towering shot that cleared the Hilltoppers’ bullpen.

Crittenberger, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound center fielder from Lighthouse Point, Florida, went 3-for-4 with three runs scored.

Believe it or not, it was Western’s first victory over tradition-rich Louisiana Tech since 2019, but that’s something Marc Rardin and his squad have left in the rear-view mirror a long time ago.

“We really don’t even talk about those sorts of things,” Rardin said.

Now the Hilltoppers turn their attention to Tuesday’s high-profile game against the University of Kentucky. They’re expecting a packed house at Nick Denes Field, and Rardin was asked about his plans for a starting pitcher against the WIldcats.

“It’s called ‘Johnny Wholestaff,'” he said with a smile.

In other words, it’s all hands on deck. Stay tuned.